
Book , t\4- ]fl 



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NNESO T A 



EXPLOEEES AND PIONEEES 



A. D. 1659 to A. D. 1858, 



REV. EDWARD DUFFIELD XKIL1.. 



BOB OK •VIRGINIA 

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PRRFAKBD TOB 



NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



OHO. K. WARN KB. 



CHAS. M 



MINNEAPOLIS : 
NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
1881. 



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MINNESOTA 



EXPLOEERS AND PIONEEES 



A. D. 1659 to A. D. 1858, 



REV. EDWARD DUFFIELD NEILL, 



PR] -l|. 1 VI ..1 M \< \l I -I I K . 1.1,1 I ..I ; 

( (.Kin -ri.M.iM. Ml M 1:1 1: OF M \— \< III -1 1 1- lll-lcKli LL SOCIETY, ETC. ; A I 1 Holt OP "YIKi.INIA 

iomi-anv 09 LOHDOS," 1N..II-II m/aih.\ 01 AMERICA," "FAIRFAXES OF 

IM.1\M> am. AMERICA," ' n i:i:\ mvki.i " "HI8TOB1 "i 

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" X, scin i/niil antea quam natus rig m <i<l< rti i<l *< mix r ease />'" ruin." 



PREPARED Mn: 



NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

Si UAKM'li. < II AS. M. MM.'IK. 



MINNKAPOUS : 
NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
1881. 






EXPLORERS 



PIOXEEES OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER I. 



FOOTPRINTS OF CIVTLIZATIOX TOWARD THE EXTRE5nTY OF LAKE SFTERIOR. 



i Central Position.— D'Avagour's Prediction.— Nicolet's Visit to Green 
Bay.— Pint White Men in Minnesota.— Notices of Groselliers and Radisson.— 
llurons Flee to Minnesota. — Visited by Frenchmen.— Father Menard Disap* 
pears.— Groselliers Visits Hudson's Bay.— Father Allouez Describes the Sioux 
Mission at Li Pointe.— Father Marquette.— Sioux at Sault St. Marie.— Jesuit 
Missions Fail.— Groaelliers Visits England.— Captain Gillaru, of Boston, at Hud- 
son's Bay.— Letter of Mother Superior of I'rsulines., at Quebec.— Death of 



The Dakotahs, called by the Ojibways, Xado- 
waysioux, or Sioux (Soos), as abbreviated by the 
French, used to claim superiority- over other peo- 
ple, because, their sacred men asserted that the 
mouth of the Minnesota River was immediately 
over the centre of the earth, and below the centre 
of the heavens. 

While this teaching is very different from that 
of the modem astronomer, it is certainly true, 
that the region west of Lake Superior, extending 
through the valley of the Minnesota, to the Mis- 
souri River, is one of the most healthful and fer- 
tile regions beneath the skies, and may prove to 
be the centre of the republic of the United States 
of America. Baron D'Avagour, a brave officer, 
who was killed in fighting the Turks, while he 
was Governor of Canada, in a dispatch to the 
French Government, dated August 14th, 1663, 
after referring to Lake Huron, wrote, that beyond 
'• is met another, called Lake Superior, the waters 
of which, it is believed, flow into Xew Spain, and 
this, according to general opinion, ought to be the 
centre of the country.'''' 

As early as 1635, one of Champlain's interpre- 
ters, Jean Xicolet (Xicolay), who came to Cana- 
da in 1618, reached the western shores of Lake 
Michigan. In the summer of 1634 he ascended 



by Geo. E. Wtarea and 



the St. Lawrence, with a party of llurons, and 
probably during the next winter was trading at 
Green Bay, in "Wisconsin. On the ninth of De- 
cember, 1635, he had returned to Canada, and on 
the 7th of October, 1637, was married at Quebec, 
and the next month, went to Three Rivers, where 
he lived until lt'»42. when he died. Of him it is 
said, in a letter written in 1640, that he had pen- 
etrated farthest into those distant countries, and 
that if he had proceeded " three days more on a 
great river which flows from that lake [Green 
Bay] he would have found the sea." 

The first white men in Minnesota, of whom we 
have any record, were, according to Garneau, two 
persons of Huguenot affinities, Medard Chouart, 
known as Sieur Groselliers, and Pierre d'Esprit, 
called Sieur Radisson. 

Groselliers (pronounced Gro-zay-yay) was bom 
near Ferte-sous-Jouarre, eleven miles east of 
Means, in France, and when about sixteen years 
of age, in the year 1641, came to Canada. The fur 
trade was the great avenue to prosperity, atffl in 
1646, he was among the Huron Indians, who then 
dwelt upon the eastern shore of Lake Huron, 
bartering for peltries. On the second of Septem- 
ber. 1647, at Quebec, he was married to Helen, 
the widow of Claud-e Etienne, who was the daugh- 
ter of a pilot, A'oraham Martin, whose baptismal 
name is still attached to the suburbs of that city, 
the " Plains of Abraham," made famous by the 
death Vhere, of General Wolfe, of the English 
army, in 1759, and of General Montgomery, of 
the /Continental army, in December, 1775, at the 

CMS oot,, i„ the office .jfthe Librarian ofCongress. at Washington, D. C. 



/ 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



commencement of Che " War for Independence." 

His son. Medard, was born in 1657, and llu> next 

year his mother died. The second wife of Gro- 
selliers was Marguerite Hayet(Hayay] Radisson, 

the Bister of his associate, in the exploration of 

the region west of Lake superior. 

Radisson was born at St. Malo, and, while a 
boy. went to Paris, and from thence to Canada, 
and in 1656, at Three Rivers, married Elizabeth, 
the daughter Of -Madeleine Hainault, and, after 
her death, the daughter of Sir David Kirk or 
Kerkt. a zealous Huguenot, became his wife. 

The Iroquois of New York, about the year 1650, 
drove the Unions from their villages, and forced 
them to take refuge with their friends the Tinon- 
tates. called by the French, Petuns, because they 
cultivated tobacco. In time the Hurons and 
their allies, the Ottawas (Ottaw-waws), were 
again driven by the Iroquois, and after successive 
wanderings, were found on the west side of Lake 
Michigan. In time they reached the Mississippi, 
and ascending above the Wisconsin, they found 
the Iowa Eiver, on the west side, which they fol- 
lowed, and dwelt for a time with the Ayoes 
(loways) who were very friendly ; but being ac- 
customed to a country of lakes and forests, they 
were not satisfied with the vast prairies. Beturn- 
ing to the Mississippi, they ascended this river, 
in search of a better land, and were met by some 
of the Sioux or Dakotahs, and conducted to their 
villages, where they were well received. The 
Sioux, delighted with the axes, knives and awls 
of European manufacture, which had been pre- 
sented to them, allowed the refugees to settle 
upon an island in the Mississippi, below the 
mouth of the St. Croix Eiver, called Bald Island 
from the absence of trees, about nine miles from 
the site of the present city of Hastings. Possessed 
of fireavrms, the Hurons and Ottawas asserted 
their superiority", and determined to conquer the 
country for themselves, and having incurred the 
hostility of the Sioux,Vvere obliged to flee from 
the isle in the Mississippi. Descending below 
Lake Pepin, they reached the* Black Eiver, and 
ascending it, found an unoccupieh\country around 
its sources and that of the Chippewiay. In this 
region the Hurons established themselves, while 
their allies, the Ottawas, moved eastwa, 
they found the shores of Lake Superior, anu\ set- 
tled at Chagouamikon ( Sha - gah - wah - mik - t>ng ) 



near what is now Bayfield. In the year 1659, 
Groselliers and Radisson arrived at Chagouamik- 
on. and determined to visit the Hurons and Pe- 
tuns, with whom the former had traded when 
they resided east of Lake Huron. After a six 
days' journey, in a southwesterly direction, they 
reached their retreat toward the sources of the 
Black, Chippewa, and Wisconsin Rivers. Prom 
this point they journeyed north, and passed the 
winter of 1659-60 among the " Nadouechiouec," 
or Sioux villages in the Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) re- 
gion. From the Hurons they learned of a beau- 
tiful river, wide, large, deep, and comparable with 
the Saint Lawrence, the great Mississippi, which 
flows through the city of Minneapolis, and whose 
sources are in northern Minnesota. 

Northeast of Mille Lacs, toward the extremity 
of Lake Superior, they met the "Poualak," or 
Assiniboines of the prairie, a separated band of 
the Sioux, who, as wood was scarce and small, 
made fire with coal (charbon de terre) and dwelt 
in tents of skins ; although some of the more in- 
dustrious built cabins of clay (terre grasse), like 
the swallows build their nests. 

The spring and summer of 1660, Groselliers and 
Eadisson passed in trading around Lake Superior. 
On the 19th of August they returned to Mon- 
treal, with three hundred Indians and sixty ca- 
noes loaded with " a wealth of skins." 
" Furs of bison and of beaver, 
Furs of sable and of ermine." 
The citizens were deeply stirred by the travelers' 
tales of the vastness and richness of the region 
they had visited, and their many romantic adven- 
tures. In a few days, they began their return to 
the far West, accompanied by six Frenchmen and 
two priests, one of whom was the Jesuit, Eene Me- 
nard. His hair whitened by age, and his mind 
ripened by long experience, he seemed the man 
for the mission. Two hours after midnight, of the 
day before departure, the venerable missionary 
penned at " Three Eivers," the following letter 
to a friend : 

' Be verend Father : 
" The peace of Christ be with you : I write to 
you probably the last, which I hope will be the 
seal of our friendship until eternity. Love whom 
the Lord Jesus did not disdain to love, though 
the greatest of sinners; for he loves whom he 



^\ 






FATHEB MENARD LOST IN WISCONSIN. 



loads with his cross. Let your friendship, my 
good Father, be useful to me by the desirable 
fruits of your daily sacrifice. 

" In three or four months you may remember 
me at the memento for the dead, on account of 
my old age, my weak constitution and the hard- 
ships I lay under amongst these tribes. Never- 
theless, I am in peace, for I have not been led to 
this mission by any temporal motive, but I think 
it was by the voice of God. I was to resist the 
grace of God by not coming. Eternal remorse 
would have tormented me, had I not come when 
I had the opportunity. 

" We have been a little surprized, not being 
able to provide ourselves with vestments and oth- 
er things, but he who feeds the little birds, and 
clothes the lilies of the fields, will take care of 
his servants; and though it should happen we 
should die of want, we would esteem ourselves 
happy. I am burdened with business. "What I 
can do is to recommend our journey to your daily 
sacrifice, and to embrace you with the same sen- 
timents of heart as I hope to do in eternity. 
" My Reverend Father, 

Your most humble and affectionate 
servant in Jesus Christ, 

B. MENTABD. 
"From the Three Rivers, this 26th August, 2 

o'clock after midnight, 1660." 

On the 16th of October, the party with which 
he journeyed reached a bay on Lake Superior, 
where he found some of the Ottawas, who had 
fled from the Iroquois of New Fork. For more 
than eight months, surrounded by a few French 
voyageurs, he lived, to use his words. " in a kind 
of small hermitage, a cabin built of fir branches 
piled one on another, not so much to shield ns 
from the rigor of the season as to correct my im- 
agination, and persuade me I was sheltered."' 

During the summer of 1661. he resolved to visit 
the Ilurons, who had fled eastward from the Sioux 
of Minnesota, and encamped amid the marshes of 
Northern Wisconsin. Some Frenchmen, who had 
been among the Hurons, in vain attempted to dis- 
suade him from the journey. To their entreaties 
he replied, " I must go, if it cost me my life. I 
can not suffer souls to perish on the ground of 
saving the bodily life of a miserable old man like 
myself. What! Are we to serve God only when 
there is nothing to suffer, and no risk of life?" 



Upon De Tlsle's map of Louisiana, published 
nearly two centuries ago, there appears the Lake 
of the Ottawas, and the Lake of the Old or De- 
serted Settlement, west of Green Bay, and south 
of Lake Superior. The Lake of the Old Planta- 
tion is supposed to have been the spot occupied 
by the Hurons at the time when Menard attempt- 
ed to visit them. One way of access to this seclu- 
ded spot was from Lake Superior to the head- 
waters of the Ontanagon River, and then by a port- 
age, to the lake. It could also be reached from 
the headwaters of the Wisconsin, Black and Chip- 
pewa Rivers, and some have said that Menard 
descended the Wisconsin and ascended the Black 
River. 

Perrot, who lived at the same time, WTites : 
" Father Menard, who was sent as missionary 
among the Outaouas [Utaw-waws] accompanied 
by certain Frenchmen who were going to trade 
with that people, was left by all who were with 
him, except one, who rendered to him until death, 
all of the services and help that he could have 
hoped. The Father followed the Outaouas f Utaw- 
waws] to the Lake of the Illinoets [Illino-ay, now 
Michigan] and in their flight to the Louisianne, 
[Mississippi] to above the Black River. There 
this missionary had but one Frenchman for a 
companion. This Frenchman carefully followed 
the route, and made a portage at the same place 
as the Outaouas. lie found himself in a rapid, 
one day, that was carrying him away in his canoe. 
The Father, to assist, debarked from his own, but 
did not find a good path to come to him. lie en- 
tered one that had been made by beasts, and de- 
siring to return, became confused in a labyrinth 
of trees, and was lost. The Frenchman, after 
having ascended the rapids with great labor, 
awaited the good Father, and, as he did not come, 
resolved to search for him. With all his might, 
for several days, lie called his name in the woods, 
hoping to find him, but it was useless. He met, 
however, a Sakis [Sauk] who was carrying the 
camp-kettle of the missionary, and who gave him 
some intelligence. He assured him that he had 
found his foot -prints at some distance, but that 
he had not seen the Father. He told him, also, 
that he had found the tracks of several, who were 
going towards the Scioux. He declared that he 
supposed that the Scioux might have killed or 
captured him. Indeed, several years afterwards, 



EXPLORERS A.\I> PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



there were found among this tribe, his breviary 
and cassock, which they exposed at their festivals, 
making offerings to them of food." 

In a journal of the Jesuits. Menard, about the 
Beventh or eighth of August. 1661, is said to have 
been lost. 

GroseUiers (Gro-zay-yay), while Menard was 
endeavoring to reach the retreat of the Hurons 
which he had made known to the authorities of 
Canada, was pushing through the country of the 
Assinehoines. on the northwest shore of Lake 
Superior, and at length, probably by Lake Alera- 
pigon, or Xepigon, reached Hudson's Bay, and 
early in May, 1662. returned to Montreal, and 
surprised its citizens with his tale of new discov- 
eries toward the Sea of the North. 

The Hurons did not remain long toward the 
sources of the Black Eiver, after Menard's disap- 
pearance, and deserting their plantations, joined 
their allies, the Ottawas, at La Pointe, now Bay- 
field, on Lake Superior. While here, they deter- 
mined to send a war party of one hundred against 
the Sioux of Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) region. At 
length they met their foes, who drove them into 
one of the thousand marshes of the water-shed 
between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, where 
they hid themselves among the tall grasses. The 
Sioux, suspecting that they might attempt to es- 
cape in the night, cut up beaver skins into strips, 
and hung thereon little bells, which they had ob- 
tained from the French traders. The Hurons, 
emerging from their watery hidingplace, stumbled 
over the unseen cords, ringing the bells, and the 
Sioux instantly attacked, killing all but one. 

About the year 1665, four Frenchmen visited 
the Sioux of Minnesota, from the west end of 
Lake Superior, accompanied by an Ottawa chief, 
and in the summer of the same year, a flotilla of 
canoes laden with peltries, came down to Mon- 
treal. Upon their return, on the eighth of Au- 
gust, the Jesuit Father, Allouez, accompanied the 
traders, and, by the first of October, reached Che- 
goimegon Bay, on or near the site of the modern 
town of Bayfield, on Lake Superior, where he 
found the refugee Hurons and Ottawas. While 
on an excursion to Lake Alempigon, now Ne- 
pigon, this missionary saw, near the mouth of 
Saint Louis Biver, in Minnesota, some of the 
Sioux. He writes : " There is a tribe to the west 
of this, toward the great river called Messipi. 



They are forty or fifty leagues from here, in a 
country of prairies, abounding in all kinds of 
game. They have fields, in which they do not 
sow Indian corn, but only tobacco. Providence 
has provided them with a species of marsh rice, 
which, toward the end of summer, they go to col- 
lect in certain small lakes, that are covered with 
it. They presented me with some when I was at 
the extremity of Lake Tracy [Superior], where I 
saw them. They do not use the gun, but only 
the bow and arrow w-ith great dexterity. Their 
cabins are not covered with bark, but with deer- 
skins well dried, and stitched together so that the 
cold does not enter. These people are above all 
other savage and warlike. In our presence they 
seem abashed, and were motionless as statues. 
They speak a language entirely unknown to us, 
and the savages about here do not understand 
them." 

The mission at La Pointe was not encouraging, 
and Allouez, " weary of their obstinate unbelief," 
departed, but Marquette succeeded him for a brief 
period. 

The "Relations" of the Jesuits for 1670-71, 
allude to the Sioux or Dakotahs, and their attack 
upon the refugees at La Pointe : 

" There are certain people called Nadoussi, 
dreaded by their neighbors, and although they 
only use the bow and arrow, they use it with so 
much skill and dexterity, that in a moment they 
fill the air. After the Parthian method, they 
turn their heads in flight, and discharge their ar- 
rows so rapidly that they are to be feared no less 
in their retreat than in their attack. 

"They dwell on the shores and around the 
great river Messipi, of which we shall speak. 
They number no less than fifteen populous towns, 
and yet they know not how to cultivate the earth 
by seeding it, contenting themselves with a sort 
of marsh rye, which we call wild oats. 

" For sixty leagues from the extremity of the 
upper lakes, towards sunset, and, as it were, in 
the centre of the western nations, they have all 
united their force by a general league, which has 
been made against them, as against a common 
enemy. 

" They speak a peculiar language, entirely dis- 
tinct from that of the Algonquins and Hurons, 
whom they generally surpass in generosity, since 
they often content themselves with the glory of 



GROSELLIERS AND RADISSON IN THE ENGLISH SEE VICE. 



having obtained the victory, and release the pris- 
oners they have taken in battle. 

" Our Outouacs of the Point of the Holy Ghost 
[La Pointe, now Bayfield] had to the present time 
kept up a kind of peace with them, but affairs 
having become embroiled during last winter, and 
some murders having been committed on both 
sides, our savages had reason to apprehend that 
the storm would soon burst upon them, and judged 
that it was safer for them to leave the place, which 
in fact "they did in the spring." 

Marquette, on the 13th of September, 1669, 
writes : " The Xadouessi are the Iroquois of this 
country. * * * they lie northwest of the Mission 
of the Holy Ghost [La Pointe, the modern Bay- 
field] and we have not yet visited them, having 
confined ourselves to the conversion of the Otta- 
was." 

Soon after this, hostilities began between the 
Sioux and the Hurons and Ottawas of La Pointe, 
and the former compelled their foes to seek an- 
other resting place, tow aid the eastern extremity 
of Lake Superior, and at length they pitched 
their tents at Mackinaw. 

In 1674, some Sioux warriors came down to 
Sault Saint Marie, to make a treaty of peace with 
adjacent tribes. A friend of the Abbe de Galli- 
nee wrote that a council was had at the fort to 
which "the Xadouessioux sent twelve deputies. 
and the others forty. During the conference, 
one of the latter, knife in hand, drew near the 
breast of one of the Xadouessioux. who showed 
surprise at the movement ; when the Indian with 
the knife reproached him for cowardice. The 
Xadouessioux said he was not afraid, when the 
other planted the knife in Ids heart, and killed 
him. All the savages then engaged in conflict, 
and the Xadouessioux bravely defended them- 
selves, but. overwhelmed by numbers, nine of 
them were killed. The two who survived rushed 
into the chapel, ami closed the door. Here they 
found munitions of war. and fired guns at their 
enemies, who became anxious to burn down the 
chapel, but the Jesuits would not permit it, be- 
cause they had their skins stored between its roof 
and ceiling. In this extremity, a Jesuit. Louis 
Le Boeme, advised that a cannon should be point- 
ed at the door, which was discharged, and the two 
brave Sioux were killed." 

Governor Frontenac of Canada, was indignant 



at the occurrence, and in a letter to Colbert, one 
of the Ministers of Louis the Fourteenth, speaks 
in Condemnation of this discharge of a cannon by 
a Brother attached to the Jesuit Mission. 

From this period, the missions of the Church of 
Rome, near Lake Superior, began to wane. Shea, 
a devout historian of that church, writes: "In 
1680, Father Enjalran was apparently alone at 
Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw ; the latter 
mission still comprising the two villages, Huron 
and Kiskakon. Of the other missions, neither 
Le Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect, WTiters of 
the AVest at this time, makes any mention, or in 
any way alludes to their existence, and La Hon- 
tan mentions the Jesuit missions only to ridicule 
them." 

The Pigeon River, a part of the northern boun- 
dary of Minnesota, was called on the French maps 
Grosellier's River, after the first explorer of Min- 
nesota, whose career, with his associate Radisson, 
became quite prominent in connection with the 
Hudson Bay region. 

A disagreement occurring between Groselliers 
and his partners in Quebec, he proceeded to Paris, 
and from thence to London, where he was intro- 
duced to the nephew of Charles I., who led the 
cavalry charge against Fairfax and Cromwell at 
Naseby, afterwards commander of the English 
fleet. The Prince listened with pleasure to the 
narrative of travel, and endorsed the plans for 
prosecuting the fur trade and seeking a north- 
west passage to Asia. The scientific men of Eng- 
land were also full of the enterprise, in the hope 
that it would increase a knowledge of nature. 
The Secretary of the Royal Society wrote to Rob- 
ert Boyle, the distinguished philosopher, a too 
sanguine letter. 1 lis words were : " Surely I need 
not tell you from hence what is said here, with 
great joy, of the discovery of a northwest passage; 
and by two Englishmen and one Frenchman 
represented to his Majesty at Oxford, and an- 
swered by the grant of a vessel to sail into Hud- 
son's Bay and channel into the South Sea." 

The ship Nonsuch was fitted out, in charge of 
( laptain Zachary Gillam, a son of one of the early 
settlers of Boston ; and in this vessel Groselliers 
and Radisson left the Thames, in June, 1668, and 
in September reached a tributary of Hudson's 
Bay. The next year, by way of Boston, they re- . 
turned to England, and in 1670, a trading com- 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



pany was chartered, still known among venerable 
English corporations as "The Hudson's Bay 
Company ." 

The Reverend Mother of the Incarnation, Su- 
perior of the Ursulines of Quebec, in a letter of 
the l^Tih of August. 1670. writes thus : 

" It was about this time that a Frenchman of 
our Touraine, named des Groselliers, married in 
this country, anil as he had not been successful 
in making a fortune, was seized with a fancy to 
goto New England to better his condition, lie 
excited a hope among the English that he had 
found a passage to the Sea of the North. With 
this expectation, he was sent as an envoy to Eng- 
land, where there was given to him, a vessel, 
with crew and every thing necessary for the voy- 
age. "With these advantages, he put to sea, and 
in place of the usual route, which others had ta- 
ken in vain, he sailed in another direction, and 
searched so wide, that he found the grand Bay of 
the North. lie found large population, and fdled 
his ship or ships with peltries of great value. * * * 



lie has taken possession of this great region for 
the King of England, and for his personal benefit 
A publication for the benefit of this French ad- 
venturer, has been made in England. He was 
a youth when he arrived here, and his wife and 
children are yet here." 

Talon, Intendent of Justice in Canada, in a dis- 
patch to Colbert, Minister of the Colonial Depart- 
ment of France, wrote on the 10th of November, 
1670, that he has received intelligence that two 
English vessels are approaching Hudson's Bay, 
and adds : " After reflecting on all the nations 
that might have penetrated as far north as that, 
I can alight on only the English, who, under the 
guidance of a man named Des Grozellers, for- 
merly an inhabitant of Canada, might possibly 
have attempted that navigation." 

After years of service on the shores of Hudson's 
Bay, either with English or French trading com- 
panies, the old explorer died in Canada, and it has 
been said that his son went to England , where he 
was living in 1696, in receipt of a pension. 



EARLY MENTION OF LAKE SUPEBIOB COPPEB. 



CHAPTER II. 



EARLY MENTION OF LAKE SUPERIOR COPPER. 



Sagard, A D. 1636, on Copper Mines— Boucher, A D. 1C40, Describes La'KC Supe 
nor Copper-Jesuit Relations, A. D M6C-67.— Copper on Isle Royiils.-Half- 
Breed Voyageur Goes to France with Talon. — Jolhet and Perrot Sr:ireh for 
Cupper.— St. Lusnon Plants the French Arms at Sault St. Marie.— Copper at 
Ontanagon and Head of Lake Superior. 



Before white men had explored the shores of 
Lake Superior, Indians had brought to the tra- 
dingposts of the St. Lawrence River, specimens of 
copper from that region. Sagard, in his History 
of Canada, published in 1686, at Paris, writes. 
'There are mines of copper which might he made 
profitable, if there were inhabitants and work- 
men who would labor faithfully. That would be 
done if colonies were established. About eighty 
or one hundred leagues from the Hurons, there 
is a mine of copper, from which Trochemont 
Brusle showed me an ingot, on his return from a 
Toyage which he made to the neighboring nation." 

Pierre Boucher, grandfather of Sieurde la Ve- 
rendrye, the explorer of the lakes of the northern 
boundary of Minnesota, in a volume published 
A. I). 1(340. also at Paris, writes : " In Lake Su- 
perior there is a great island. Qfty or one hundred 
leagues in circumference, in which there is a very 
beautiful mine of copper. There are other places 
in those quarters, where there are similar mines ; 
so I learned from four or five Frenchmen, who 
lately returned. They were gone three years, 
without finding an opportunity to return; they 
told me that they had seen an ingot of copper all 
refined which was on the coast, ami weighed more 
than eight hundred pounds, according to their es- 
timate. They said that the savages, on passing 
it, made a fire on it. after which they cut off pie- 
ces with their axes." 

In the Jesuit Relations of 1666-G7. there is this 
description of Isle Royale : " Advancing to a 
place called the Grand Anse. we meet with an 
island, three leagues from land, which is cele- 
brated for the metal which is found there, and 
for the thunder which takes place there; for they 
say it always thunders there. 



11 But farther towards the west on the same 
north shore, is the island most famous for copper, 
Minong (Isle Royale). This island is twenty-five 
leagues in length ; it is seven from the mainland, 
and sixty from the head of the lake. Nearly all 
around the island, on the waters edge, pieces of 
copper are found mixed with pebbles, but espe- 
cially on the side which is opposite the south, 
and principally in a certain bay. which is near 
the northeast exposure to the great lake. * * * 

■• Advancing to the head of the lake (Fon du 
Lac) and returning one day's journey by the south 
coast, there is seen on the edge of the water, a 
rock of copper weighing seven or eight hundred 
pounds, ami is so hard that steel can hardly cut it, 
but when it is heated it cuts as easily as lead. 
Near Point Chagouainigong [Sha - gab - wah- mik- 
ong. near Bayfield] where a mission was establish- 
ed rocks of copper and plates of the same metal 
were found. * * * Returning still toward the 
mouth of the lake, following the coast on the south 
as twenty leagues from the place last mentioned, 
we, enter the river called Nantaouagan [Ontona- 
gon] on which is a hill where stones and copper 
fall into the water or upon the earth. They are 
readily found. 

••Three years since we received a piece which 
was brought from this place, which weighed a 
hundred pounds, ami we sent it to Quebec to Mr. 
Talon. It is not certain exactly where this was 
broken from. "We think it was from the forks of 
the river : others, that it A\as from near the lake, 
and dug up." 

Talon. Intendent of Justice in Canada, visited 
Fiance, taking a half-breed voyageur with him, 
and while in Paris, wrote on the 26th of Febru- 
ary. 1669, to Colbert, the Minister of the Marine 
Department, "that this voyageur had penetrated 
among the western nations farther than any other 
Frenchman, and had seen the copper mine on 
Lake Huron. [Superior?] The man otters to go 



EXPLORERS AM> PlOXaURS OF MINXES01A. 



to that mine, and explore, cither i>> sea. or i>\ 
lake and river, the communication supposed to 
exist between Canada and the South Sea, or to 
the regions of Hudson's Bay." 

\^ soon as Talon returned to Canada he com- 
missioned Jolliet and Pere [Perrot] to search for 
tin' mines Of copper on the upper Lakes. Jolliet 
received an outfit of four hundred livres, and four 
canoes, and l'errot one thousand livres. Minis- 
ister Colbert wrote from Paris to Talon, in Feb- 
ruary, 1671, approving of the search for copper, 
in these words ; " The resolution you have taken 
to send Sieur de La Salle toward the south, and 
Sieur de St. Lusson to the north, to discover the 
South Sea passage, is very good, hut the principal 
thing you ought to apply yourself in discoveries 
of this nature, is to look for the copper mine. 

•• Were this mine discovered, and its utility 
evident, it would he an assured means to attract 
several Frenchmen from old, to New Trance." 

On the 14th of June, 1671, Saint Lusson at Sault 
St. Marie, planted the arms of France, in the pres- 
ence of Nicholas Perrot, who acted as interpreter 
on the occasion ; the Sieur Jolliet ; Pierre Moreau 
or Sieur de la Taupine ; a soldier of the garrison 
of Quebec, and several other Frenchmen. 

Talon, in announcing Saint Lusson's explora- 
tions to Colbert, on the' 2d of November, 1671, 
wrote from Quebec : " The copper which I send 
from Lake Superior and the river Nantaouagan 
[Ontonagon] proves that there is a mine on the 
border of some stream, which produces this ma- 
terial as pure as one could wish. More than 
twenty Frenchmen have seen one lump at the 
lake, which they estimate weighs more than eight 
hundred pounds. The Jesuit Fathers among the 
Outaouas [Ou-taw-waws] use an anvil of this ma- 
terial, which weighs about one hundred pounds. 
There will be no rest until the source from whence 
these detached lumps come is discovered. 

" The river Nantaouagan TOntonagon] appears 



between two high hills, the plain above which 
feeds the lakes, and receives a great deal of snow, 
which, in melting, forms torrents which wasli the 
borders of this river, composed of solid gravel, 
w Inch is rolled down by it. 

"The gravel at the bottom of this, hardens it- 
self, and assumes different shapes, such as those 
pebbles which I send to Mr. Bellinzany. My 
opinion is that these pebbles, rounded and carried 
off by the rapid waters, then have a tendency to 
become copper, by the influence of the sun's rays 
which they absorb, and to form other nuggets of 
metal similar to those which I send to Sieur de 
Bellinzany, found by the Sieur de Saint Lusson, 
about four hundred leagues, at some distance from 
the mouth of the river. 

"He hoped by the frequent journeys of the 
savages, and French who are beginning to travel 
by these routes, to discern the source of nroduc- 
tion." 

Governor Denonville, of Canada, sixteen years 
after the above circumstances, wrote : " The cop- 
per, a sample of which I sent M. Arnou, is found 
at the head of Lake Superior. The body of the 
mine has not yet been discovered. I have seen 
one of our voyageurs who assures me that, some 
fifteen months ago he saw a lump of two hundred 
weight, as yellow as gold, in a river which falls 
into Lake Superior. When heated, it could be 
cut with an axe ; but the superstitious Indians, 
regarding this boulder as a good spirit, would 
never permit him to take any of it away. His 
opinion is that the frost undermined this piece, 
and that the mine is in that river. He has prom- 
ised to search for it on his way back." 

In the year 1730, there was some correspond- 
ence with the authorities in France relative to 
the discovery of copper at La Pointe, but, practi- 
cally, little was done by the French, in developing 
the mineral wealth of Lake Superior. 



DTJ LUTH PLANTS THE FRENCH ARMS IN MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER III. 



DTJ LUTH PLANTS TILE FUEXCH ARMS TX MINNESOTA 



ro Luth's Belatives.— Bandin Visits Extremity of Lake Superior. — Du Luth 
Plants King's Arms. — Post at Kaministigoya.— Pierre MoreaF, alias La Taupine. 
— La Salle's Visit.— A Pilot Deserts to the Sioux Country.— uaffart, Du Luth's 
Interpreter.— Descent of the River St. Croix.— Meet* Father Hennepin.— Crit- 
icised by La Salle. — Trades with Xew England. —Visits France.— In Command 
at Mackinaw. — Frenchmen Murdered at Keweenaw.— Du Luth Arrests aud 
Shoots Murderers.— Builds Fort above Detroit. — With Indian Allies in the 
Seneca War.— Du Luth's Brother.— Cadillac Defends the Brandy Trade.— Du 
Luth Disapproves of Selling Brandy to the Indians.- 
-Death. 



In the year 1678, several prominent merchants 
of Quebec and Montreal, with the support of 
Governor Frontenac of Canada, formed a com- 
pany to open trade with the Sioux of Minnesota, 
and a nephew of Patron, one of these merchants, 
a brother-in-law of Sieur de Lusigny. an officer 
of the Governor's Guards, named Darnel Grey- 
solon Du Luth [Doo-loo]. a native of St. Germain 
en Lave, a few miles from Paris, although Lahon- 
tan speaks of him as from Lyons, was made the 
leader of the expedition. At the battle of Seneffe 
against the Prince of Orange, he was a gendarme, 
and one of the King's guards. 

Du Luth was also a cousin of Henry Tonty, who 
had been in the revolution at Naples, to throw off 
the Spanish dependence. Du Luth's name is va- 
riously spelled in the documents of his day. Hen- 
nepin writes, ••DuLuth;" others. •• Dulhnt." 
" Du Lira," " Du Lut." " De Luth." " Du Lud." 

The temptation to procure valuable furs from 
the Lake Superior region, contrary to the letter 
of the Canadian law, was very great ; and more 
than one Governor winked at the eontraband 
trade. Randin, who visited the extremity of 
Lake Superior, distributed presents to the Sioux 
and Ottawas in the name of Governor Frontenac, 
to secure the trade, and after his death. Du Luth 
was sent to complete what he had begun. With 
a party of twenty, seventeen Frenchmen and 
three Indians, he left Quebec on the first of 
September, 1678, and on the fifth of April. H57i). 
DuLuth writes to Governor Frontenac. that he 
is in the woods, about nine miles from Sault St. 
Marie, at the entrance of Lake Superior, and 



adds that : he " will not stir from the Nadous- 
sioux. until further orders, and. peace being con- 
cluded, he will set up the King's Arms ; lest the 
English and other Europeans settled towards 
California, take possession of the country." 

On the second of July, 1679. he caused his 
Majesty's Anns to be planted in the great village 
of the Xadoussioux. called Kathio, where no 
Frenchman had ever been, and at Songaskicons 
and Houetbatons. one hundred and twenty leagues 
distant from the former, where he also set up the 
King's Arms. In a letter to Seignalay, published 
for the first time by Harrisse, he writes that it 
was in the village of Izatys [Issati]. Upon Fran- 
quelin's map. the Mississippi branches into the 
Tintonha [Teeton Sioux] country, and not far from 
here, he alleges, was seen a tree upon which was 
this legend: " Arms of the King cut on this tree 
in the year 1679." 

lie established a post at Kamanistigoya, which 
was distant fifteen leagues from the Grand Port- 
age at the western extremity of Lake Superior; 
and here, on the fifteenth of September, he held 
a council with the Assenipoulaks [Assineboines] 
and other tribes, and urged them to be at peace 
with the Sioux. During this summer, he dis- 
patched Pierre Moreau, a celebrated voyageur, 
nicknamed La Taupine. with letters to Governor 
Frontenac, and valuable furs to the merchants. 
His arrival at Quebec, created some excitement. 
It was charged that the Governor corresponded 
with Du Luth, and that he passed the beaver, 
sent by him. in the name of merchants in his in- 

: terest. The Intendant of Justice, Du Chesneau, 
wrote to the Minister of the Colonial Department 

I of France, that il the man named La Taupine, a 
famous coureur des bois, who set out in the month 
of September of last year, 1678, to go to the Ou- 
tawacs, with goods, and who has always been iu- 

j terested with the Governor, having returned this 
year, and I, being advised that he had traded in 



10 



EXPLOBEES AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



two days, one hundred and fifty beaver robes in 

one village of this tribe, amounting to nearly nine 
hundred beavers, which is a matter o( public no- 
toriety: and that he left with Du Lut two men 
whom he had with him. considered m\ self bound 
to have him arrested, and to interrogate him ; but 
ha\ ing presented me with a license from the Gov- 
ernor, permitting him and his comrades, named 
Lamondeand Dupuy, to repair to the Outawac, 
to execute his secret orders. 1 had him set at 
liberty : and immediately on his going out, Sieur 
1 "revost . Town Mayor of Quebec, came at the head 
of some soldiers to force the prison, in case he 
was still there, pursuant to his orders from the 
Governor, in these terms : " Sieur Prevost, Mayor 
of Quebec, is ordered, in case the Intendant arrest 
Pierre Moreau alias La Taupine, whom we have 
sent to Quebec as bearer of our dispatches, upon 
pretext of his liaving been in the bush, to set him 
forthwith at liberty, and to employ every means 
for this purpose, at bis peril. Done at Montreal, 
the 5th September, 1679." 

La Taupine, in due time returned to Lake Su- 
perior with another consignment of merchandise. 
The interpreter of Du Luth, and trader with the 
Sioux, was Faffart, who had been a soldier under 
La Salle at Fort Frontenac, and had deserted. 

La Salle was commissioned in 1678, by the 
King of France, to explore the West, and trade in 
cibola, or buffalo skins, and on condition that he 
did not traffic with the Ottauwaws, who carried 
their beaver to Montreal. 

On the 27th of August, 1679, he arrived at 
Mackinaw, in the " Griffin,'' the first sailing ves- 
sel on the great Lakes of the West, and from 
thence went to Green Bay, where, in the face of 
his commission, he traded for beaver. Loading 
his vessel with peltries, he sent it back to Niag- 
ara, while he, in canoes, proceeded with his ex- 
pedition to the Illinois Eiver. The ship was 
never heard of, and for a time supposed to be lost, 
but La Salle afterward learned from a Pawnee 
boy fourteen or fifteen years of age, who was 
brought prisoner to his fort on the Illinois by some 
Indians, that the pilot of the " Griffin " had been 
among the tribes of the Upper Missouri. He had 
ascended the Mississippi with four others in two 
birch canoes with goods and some hand grenades, 
taken from the ship, with the intention of jom 
ing Du Luth, who had for months been trading 



with the Sioux ; and if their efforts were unsuc- 
cessful, they expected to. push on to the English, 
at Hudson's Pay. While ascending the Missis- 
sippi they were attacked by Indians, and the pilot 
and one other only survived, and they were sold 
to the Indians on the Missouri. 

In the month of June, 1680, Du Luth, accom- 
panied by Faffart, an interpreter, with four 
Frenchmen, also a Chippeway and a Sioux, with 
two canoes, entered a river, the mouth o'f which 
is eight leagues from the head of Lake Superior 
on the South side, named jSTemitsakouat. Peach- 
ing its head waters, by a short portage, of half a 
league, he reached a lake which was the source 
of the Saint Croix River, and by this, he and his 
companions were the first Europeans to journey 
in a canoe from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. 

La Salle writes, that Du Luth, finding that 
the Sioux were on a hunt in the Mississippi val- 
ley, below the Saint Croix, and that Accault, Au- 
gelle and Hennepin, who had come up from the 
Illinois a few weeks before, were with them, de- 
scended until he found them. In the same letter 
he disregards the truth in order to disparage his 
rival, and writes: 

" Thirty-eight or forty leagues above the Chip- 
peway they found the river by which the Sieur 
Du Luth did descend to the Mississippi. He had 
been three years, contrary to orders, with a com- 
pany of twenty " coureurs du bois " on Lake Su- 
perior; he had borne himself bravely, proclaiming 
everywhere that at the head of his brave fellows 
he did not fear the Grand Prevost, and that he 
would compel an amnesty. 

" While he was at Lake Superior, the Nadoue- 
sioux, enticed by the presents that the late Sieur 
Eandin had made on the part of Count Fronte- 
nac, and the Sauteurs [Ojibways], who are the sav- 
ages who carry the peltries to Montreal, and who 
dwell on Lake Superior, wishing to obey the re- 
peated orders of the Count, made a peace to 
unite the Sauteurs and French, and to trade with 
the Nadouesioux, situated about sixty leagues to 
the w r est of Lake Superior. Du Luth, to disguise 
bis desertion, seized the opportunity to make 
some reputation for himself, sending two messen- 
gers to the Count to negotiate a truce, during 
which period their comrades negotiated still bet- 
ter for beaver. 

Several conferences were held with the !Na- 






FAFFABT, DU LUTH'S INTERPRETER. 



douessioux, and as he needed an interpreter, he led 
off one of mine, named Faff art, formerly a sol- 
dier at Fort Frontenac. During this period there 
were frequent visits between the Sauteurs [Ojib- 
ways] and Nadouesioux, and supposing that it 
might increase the number of beaver skins, he 
sent Faffart by land, with the Nadouesioux and 
Sauteurs [Ojibways]. The young man on his re- 
turn, having given an account of the quantity of 
beaver in that region, he wished to proceed thither 
himself, and, guided by a Sauteur and a Nadoue- 
sioux. and four Frenchmen, he ascended the river 
Xeniitsakouat. where, by a short portage, he de- 
scended that stream, whereon he passed through 
forty leagues of rapids [Upper St. Croix Kiver], 
and finding that the Xadouesioux were below with 
my men and the Father, who had come down 
again from the village of the Xadouesioux. he 
discovered them. They went up again to the 
village, and from thence they all together came 
down. They returned by the river Ouisconsiug, 
and came back to Montreal, where DuLuth in- 
sults the commissaries, and the deputy of the 
'procuieur general," named d'Auteuil. Count 
Frontenac had him arrested and imprisoned in 
the castle of Quebec, with the intention of return- 
ing him to France for the amnesty accorded to 
the coureurs dcs bois. did not release him." 

At this very period, another party charges 
Frontenac as being Dn Luth's particular friend. 

Du Luth, during the fall of 1681, was engaged 
in the beaver trade at Montreal and Quebec. 
Du Chesneau, the Intendant of Justice for Can- 
ada, on the 13th of November. 1681, wrote to the 
Marquis de Siegnelay, in Paris : •- Not content 
with the profits to be derived from the countries 
under the King's dominion, the desire of making 
money everywhere, has led the Governor [Fron- 
tenac], Boisseau, Du Lut and Patron, his uncle. 
to send canoes loaded with peltries, to the En- 
glish. It is said sixty thousand livres' worth has 
been sent thither:"' and he further stated that 
there was a very general report that within live 
or six days. Frontenac and his associates had di- 
vided the money received from the beavers sent 
to Xew England. 

At a conference in Quebec of some of the dis- 
tinguished men in that city, relative to difficulties 
with the Iroquois, held on the Kith of October, 
1682, Du Luth was present. From thence he went 



to France, and, early in 1683, consulted with the 
Minister of Marine at Versailles relative to the 
interests of trade in the Hudson's Bay and Lake 
Superior region. Upon his return to Canada, he 
departed for Mackinaw. Governor De la Barre, 
on the 9th of November, 1683, wrote to the French 
Government that the Indians west and north of 
Lake Superior, " when they heard by expresses 
sent them by Du Lhut, of his arrival at Missili- 
makinak, that he was coming, sent him word to 
come quickly and they would unite with him to 
prevent others going thither. If I stop that pass 
as I hope, and as it is necessary to do, as the Eng- 
lish of the Bay [Hudson's] excite against us the 
savages, whom Sieur Du Lhut alone can quiet." 

"While stationed at Mackinaw he was a partici- 
pant in a tragic occurrence. During the summer 
of 1683 Jacques le Maire and Colin Berthot, while 
on their way to trade at Keweenaw, on Lake Su- 
perior, were surprised by three Indians, robbed, 
and murdered. Du Luth was prompt to arrest 
and punish the assassins. In a letter f rqrn Mack- 
inaw, dated April 12, 1684, to the Governor of 
Canada, he writes: "Be pleased to know. Sir, 
that on the 24th of October last, I was told that 
Folle Avoine, accomplice in the murder and rob- 
bery of the two Frenchmen, had arrived at Sault 
Ste. Marie with fifteen families of the Sauteurs 
[Ojibways] who had fled from Chagoamigon [La 
Pointe] on account of an attack which they, to- 
gether with the people of the land, made last 
Spring upon the Xadouecioux [Dakotahs.] 

■•lie believed himself safe at the Sault, on ac- 
count of the number of allies and relatives he had 
there. Rev. Father Albanel informed me that 
the French at the Saut, being only twelve in num- 
ber, had not arrested him, believing themselves 
too weak to contend with such numbers, espe- 
cially as the Sauteurs had declared that they 
would not allow the French to redden the land 
of their fathers with the blood of their brothers. 

" On receiving this information, I immediately 
resolved to take with me six Frenchmen, and em- 
bark at the dawn of the next day for Sault Ste. 
Marie, and if possible obtain possession of the 
murderer. 1 made known my design to the Rev. 
Father Engalran, and, at my request, as he had 
some business to arrange with Rev. Father Al- 
banel, he placed himself in my canoe. 

" Having arrived within a league of the village 



12 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



of the Saut, the Bev. Father, the Chevalier de 
Fourcille, Cardonnierre, and l disembarked. I 

caused the canoe, in which were l>a riband, Le 
Mere, La Fortune, and Maeons. to proceed, w bile 

we went across the wood to the house of the Rev. 
Fattier, fearing that the savages, seeing me. might 
suspect the object of my visit, and cause Folle 
Avoine to escape. Finally, to cut the matter 
short, 1 arrested him, and caused him to be 
guarded day and night by six Frenchmen. 

■• I then called a council, at which I requested 
all the savages of the place to be present, where 
1 repeated what I bad often said to the Hurons 
and Ottawas since the departure of M. Pere[Per- 
rot], giving them the message you ordered me. 
Sir, that in case there should be among them any 
spirits so evil disposed as to follow the example 
of those who have murdered the French on Lake 
Superior and Lake Michigan, they must separate 
the guilty from the innocent, as I did not wish 
the whole nation to suffer, unless they protected 
the guilty. * * * The savages held several 
councils, to which I was invited, b:.t their only 
object seemed to be to exculpate the prisoner, in 
order that I might release him. 

" All united in accusing Achiganaga and his 
children, assuring themselves with the belief that 
M. Pere, [Perrot] with his detachment would not 
be able to arrest them, and wishing to persuade 
me that they apprehended that all the Frenchmen 
might be killed. 

"I answered them. * * *' As to the antici- 
pated death of M. Pere [Perrot], as well as of the 
other Frenchmen, that would not embarrass me. 
since I believed neither the allies nor the nation 
of Achiganaga would wish to have a war with us 
to sustain an action so dark as that of which we 
were speaking. Having only to attack a few 
murderers, or, at most, those of their own family. 
I was certain that the French would have them 
dead or alive.' 

" This was the answer they had from me during 
the three days that- the councils lasted ; after 
which I embarked, at ten o'clock in the morning, 
sustained by only twelve Frenchmen, to show a 
few unruly persons who boasted of taking the 
prisoner away from me, that the French did not 
fear them. 

"Daily I received accounts of the number of 
savages that Achiganaga drew from his nation to 



Eiaonan [Keweenaw] under pretext of going to 
war in the spring against the Nadouecioux, to 
avenge the death of one of his relatives, son of Ou- 
enaus, but really to protect himself against us, 
in case we should become convinced that his chil- 
dren had killed the F'renchmen. This precaution 
placed me between hope and fear respecting the 
expedition which M. Pere [Perrot] had under- 
taken. 

"On the 24th of November, [1683], he came 
across the wood at ten o'clock at night, to tell me 
that he had arrested Achiganaga and four of his 
children. He said they were not all guilty of the 
murder, but had thought proper, in this affair, to 
follow the custom of the savages, which is to seize 
all the relatives. Folle Avoine, whom I had ar- 
rested, he considered the most guilty, being with- 
out doubt the originator of the mischief. 

" I immediately gave orders that Folle Avoine 
should be more closely confined, and not allowed 
to speak to any one ; for I had also learned that 
he had a brother, sister, and uncle in the village 
of the Kiskakons. 

" M. Pere informed me that he had released the 
youngest son of Achiganaga, aged about thirteen 
or fourteen years, that he might make known to 
their nation and the Sauteurs [Ojibways], who are 
at Nocke and in the neighborhood, the reason 
why the French had arrested his father and bro- 
thers. M. Pere bade him assure the savages that 
if any one wished to complain of what he had 
done, he would wait for them with a firm step ; for 
he considered himself in a condition to set them 
at defiance, having found at Kiaonau [Keweenaw] 
eighteen Frenchmen who had wintered there. 

" On the 25th, at daybreak, M. Pere embarked 
at the Sault, with four good men whom I gave 
him, to go and meet the prisoners. He left them 
four leagues from there, under a guard of twelve 
Frenchmen ; and at two o'clock in the afternoon, 
they arrived. I had prepared a room in my house 
for the prisoners, in which they were placed under 
a strong guard, and were not allowed to converse 
with any one. 

" On the 26th, I commenced proceedings; and 
this, sir, is the course I pursued. I gave notice 
to all the chiefs and others, to appear at the 
council which I had appointed, and gave to Folle 
Avoine the privilege of selecting two of his rela- 



INDIANS CONDEMNED TO BE SHOT. 



13 



tives to support his interests ; and to the other 
prisoners I made the same offer. 

" The council being assembled, I sent for Folle 
Avoine to be interrogated, and caused his answers 
to be written, and afterwards they were read to 
him, and inquiry made whether they were not, 
word for word, what he had said. He was then 
removed under a safe guard. I used the same 
form with the two eldest sons of Achiganaga, and, 
as Folle Avoine had mdirectly charged the father 
with being accessory to the murder, I sent for 
him and also for Folle Avoine, and bringing them 
into the council, confronted the four. 

" Folle Avoine and the two sons of Achiganaga 
accused each other of committing the murder, 
without denying that they were participators in 
the crime. Achiganaga alone strongly maintained 
that he knew nothing of the design of Folle 
Avoine, nor of his children, and called on them 
to say if he had advised them to kill the French- 
men. They answered, 'No.' 

" This confrontation, which the savages did not 
expect, surprised them; and, seeing the prisoners 
had convicted themselves of the murder, the 
Chiefs said: 'It is enough; you accuse your- 
selves; the French are masters of your bodies.* 

" The next day I held another council, in which 
I said there could be no doubt that the French- 
men had been murdered, that the murderers were 
known, and that they knew what was the prac- 
tice among themselves upon such occasions. To 
all this they said nothing, which obliged us on 
the following day to hold another council in the 
cabin of Brochet, where, after having spoken, and 
seeing that they would make no decision, and that 
all my councils ended only in reducing tobacco to 
ashes, I told them that, since they did not wish to 
decide, I should take the responsibility, and that 
the' next day I would let them know the deter- 
mination of the French and myself. 

" It is proper, Sir, you should know that I ob- 
served all these forms only to see if they would 
feel it their duty to render to us the same justice 
that they do to each other, having had divers ex- 
amples in which when the tribes of those who 
had committed the murder did not wish to go to 
war with the tribe aggrieved, the nearest rela- 
tions of the murderers killed them themselves; 
that is to say, man for man. 

" On the 29th of November. I gathered together 



the French that were here, and, after the interro- 
gations and answers of the accused had been read 
to them, the guilt of the three appeared so evi- 
dent, from their own confessions, that the vote 
was unanimous that all should die. But as the 
French who remained at Kiaonan to pass the win- 
ter had written to Father Engalran and to myself, 
to beg us to treat the affair with all possible len- 
iency, the savages declaring that if they made 
the prisoners die they would avenge themselves, 
I told the gentlemen who were with me in coun- 
cil that, this being a case without a precedent, I 
believed it was expedient for the safety of the 
French who would pass the winter in the Lake 
Superior country to put to death only two, as that 
of the third might bring about grievous conse- 
quences, while the putting to death, man for 
man, could give the savages no complaint, since 
this is their custom. M. de la Tour, chief of the 
Fathers, who had served much, sustained my 
opinions by strong reasoning, and all decided that 
two should be shot, namely, Folle Avoine and 
the older of the two brothers, while the younger 
should be released, and hold his life, Sir, as a gift 
from you. 

■• I then returned to the cabin of Brochet with 
Messrs. Boisguillot, Pere, De Kepentigny, De 
Manthet, De la Ferte. and Macons, where were 
all the chiefs of the Outawas du Sable, Outawas 
Sinagos, Kiskakons, Sauteurs, DAchiliny, apart 
of the Hurons. and Oumamens, the chief of the 
Amikoys. I informed them of our decision * 

* * that, the Frenchmen having been killed by 
the different nations, one of each must die, and 
that the same death they had caused the French 
to suffer they must also suffer. * * * This 
decision to put the murderers to death was a hard 
stroke to them all, for none had believed that I 
would dare to undertake it. * * * I then left 
the council and asked the Rev. Fathers if they 
wished to baptize the prisoners, which they did. 

"An hour after, I put myself at the head of 
forty-two Frenchmen, and, in sight of more than 
four hundred savages, and within two hundred 
paces of their fort, I caused the two murderers 
to be shot. The impossibility of keeping them 
until spring made me hasten their death. * * 

* "When M. Pere made the arrest, those who had 
committed the murder confessed it; and when he 
asked them what they had done with our goods, 



11 



EXriOHEHS AND PIOXEEHS OF MIXXESOTA. 



they answered that they were almost all con- 
cealed, lie proceeded to the place of conceal- 
ment, ami was very much surprised, as were also 
the French with him. to find them, in fifteen or 

twenty different places. By the carelessness of 
the savages, the tobacco and powder were entire- 
ly destroyed, having been placed in the pinery, 
under the roots of trees, and being soaked in the 
water caused b\ ten or twelve days' continuous 
rain, which inundated all the lower country. 
The season for snow and ice having come, they 
had all the trouble in the world to get out the 
bales of cloth. 

•• They then went to see the bodies, but could 
not remove them, these miserable wretches hav- 
iug thrown them into a marsh, and thrust them 
down into holes which they had made. Not sat- 
isfied with this, they had also piled branches of 
trees upon the bodies, to prevent them from float- 
ing when the water should rise in the spring, 
hoping by this precaution the French would find 
no trace of those who were killed, but would think 
them drowned : as they reported that they had 
found in the lake on the other side of the Portage, 
a boat with the sides all broken in, which they 
believed to be a French boat. 

" Those goods which the French were able to 
secure, they took to Kiaonau [Keweenaw], where 
were a number of Frenchmen who had gone there 
to pass the winter, who knew nothing of the death 
of Colin Berthot and Jacques le Maire, until M. 
Pere arrived. 

" The ten who formed M. Pere's detachment 
having conferred together concerning the means 
they should take to prevent a total loss, decided 
to sell the goods to the highest bidder. The sale 
was made for 1100 livres, which was to be paid in 
beavers, to M. de la Chesnaye, to whom I send 
the names of the purchsers. 

" The savages who were present when Achiga- 
naga and his children were arrested wished to 
pass the calumet to M. Pere, and give him cap- 
tives to satisfy him for the murder committed on 
the two Frenchmen; but he knew their inten- 
tion, and would not accept their offer. He told 
them neither a hundred captives nor a hundred 
packs of beaver would give back the blood of his 
brothers ; that the murderers must be given up 
to me, and I would see what I would do. 

" I caused M. Pere to repeat these things in the 



council, that in future the savages need not think 
by presents to save those who commit similar 
deeds. Besides, sir, M. Pere showed plainly by 
his conduct, that he is not strongly inclined to 
favor the savages, as was reported. Indeed, I do 
not know any one whom they fear more, yet who 
flatters them less or knows them better. 

" The criminals being in two different places, 
M. Pere being obliged to keep four of them, sent 
Messrs. de Eepentigny, Manthet, and six other 
Frenchmen, to arrest the two who were eight 
leagues in the woods. Among others, M. de Re- 
pentigny and M. de Manthet showed that they 
feared nothing when their honor called them. 

" M. de la Chevrotiere has also served well in 
person, and by his advice, having pointed out 
where the prisoners were. Achiganaga, who had 
adopted him as a son, had told him where he 
should hunt during the winter. ***** 
It still remained for me to give to Achiganaga and 
his three children the means to return to his 
family. Their home from which they were taken 
was nearly twenty-six leagues from here. Know- 
ing their necessity, I told them you would not be 
satisfied in giving them life ; you wished to pre- 
serve it, by giving them all that was necessary to 
prevent them from dying with hunger and cold 
by the way, and that your gift was made by my 
hands. I gave them blankets, tobacco, meat, 
hatchets, knives, twine to make nets for beavers, 
and two bags of corn, to supply them till they 
could kill game. 

" They departed two days after, the most con- 
tented creatures in the world, but God was not ; 
for when only two days' journey from here, the 
old Achiganaga fell sick of the quinsy, and died, 
and his children returned. When the news of his 
death arrived, the greater part of the savages of 
this place [Mackinaw] attributed it to the French, 
saying we had caused him to die. I let them 
talk, and laughed at them. It is only about two 
months since the children of Achiganaga returr.e I 
toKiaonan." 

Some of those opposed to Du Luth and Fron- 
• tenac, prejudiced the King of France relative to 
the transaction we have described, and in a letter 
to the Governor of Canada, the King writes : " It 
appears to me that one of the principal causes of 
the war arises from one Du Luth having caused 
two to be killed who had assassinated two French- 



ENGLISH TRADERS CAPTURED. 



15 



men on Lake Superior ; and you sufficiently see 
now much this man's voyage, which can not pro- 
duce any advantage to the colony, and which was 
permitted only in the interest of some private 
persons, has contributed to distract the peace of 
the colony." 

Du Luth and his young brother appear to have 
traded at the western extremity of Lake Superior. 
and on the north shore, to Lake Xipegon. 

In June, 16S4, Governor De la Barre sent Guil- 
letand Hebertfrom Montreal to request DuLuth 
and Durantaye to bring down voyageurs and In- 
dians to assist in an expedition against the Iro- 
quois of Xew York. Early in September, they 
reported on the St. Lawrence, with one hundred 
and fifty coureurs des bois and three hundred and 
fifty Indians ; but as a treaty had just been made 
with the Senecas, they returned. 

De la Barre 's successor, Governor Denonville, 
in a dispatch to the French Government, dated 
November 12th, 1685, alludes to Du Luth being 
in the far West, in these words : •• I likewise sent 
to M. De la Durantaye. who is at Lake Superior 
under orders from M. De la Bane, and to Sieur 
Du Luth. who is also at a great distance in an- 
other direction, and all so far beyond reach that 
neither the one nor the other can hear news from 
me this year ; so that, not being able to see them 
at soonest, before next July. I considered it best 
not to think of undertaking any thing during the 
whole of next year, especially as a great number 
of our best men are among the Outaouacs. and 
can not return before the ensuing summer. * * * 
In regard to Sieur DuLuth. 1 sent him orders to 
repair here, so that I may learn the number of 
savages on whom 1 may depend. lie is accredit- 
ed among them, and rendered great services to 
M. De la Barre by a large number of savages he 
brought to Niagara, who would have attacked 
the Senecas. was it not for an express order from 
M. De la Barre to the contrary." 

In 1686, while at Mackinaw, he was ordered to 
establish a post on the Detroit, near Lake Erie. 
A portion of the order reads as f illows : " After 
having given all the orders that you may judge 
necessary for the safety of this post, and having 
well secured the obedience of the Indians, you 
will return to Michilimackinac. there to await 
Rev. Father Engelran, by whom I will commu- 
nicate what I wish of you, there." 



The design of this post was to block the pas- 
sage of the English to. the upper lakes. Before 
it was established, in the fall of 16S6, Thomas 
Roseboorn, a daring trader from Albany, on the 
Hudson, had found his way to the vicinity of 
Mackinaw, and by the proffer of brandy, weak- 
ened the allegiance of the tribes to the French. 

A canoe coming to Mackinaw with dispatches 
for the French and their allies, to march to the 
Seneca country, in Xew York, perceived this Xew 
York trader and associates, and, giving the alarm, 
they were met by three hundred coureurs du 
bois and captured. 

In the spring of 1687 Du Luth, Durantaye, 
and Tonty all left the vicinity of Detroit for Ni- 
agara, and as they were coasting along Lake Erie 
they met another English trader, a Scotchman 
by birth, and by name Major Patrick McGregor, 
a person of some influence, going with a number 
of traders to Mackinaw. Having taken him pris- 
oner, he was sent with Roseboom to Montreal. 

Du Luth. Tonty. and Durantaye arrived at Xi- 
agara on the :27th of June. 1687, with one hun- 
dred and seventy French voyageurs. besides In- 
dians, and on the 10th of July joined the army of 
Denonville at the mouth of the Genesee River, 
and on the 13th Du Luth and his associates had 
a skirmish near a Seneca village, now the site of 
the town of Victor, twenty miles southeast of the 
city of Rochester. Xew York. Governor Denon- 
ville. in a report, writes: •• On the 13th, about 4 
o'clock in the afternoon, having passed through 
two dangerous defiles, we arrived at the third, 
where we were vigorously attacked by eight hun- 
dred Senecas. two hundred of whom fired, wish- 
ing to attack our rear, while the rest would attack 
our front, but the resistance, made produced 
such a great consternation that they soon resolved 
to fly. * * '* We witnessed the painful sight 
of the usual cruelties of the savages, who cut the 
dead into quarters, as is done in slaughter houses, 
in order to put them into the kettle. The greater 
number were opened while still warm, that the 
blood might be drunk. Our rascally Otaoas dis- 
tinguished themselves particularly by these bar- 
barities. * * * "We had five or six men killed 
on the spot, French and Indians, and about 
twenty wounded, among the first of whom was the 
Rev. Father Angelran, superior of all the Otaoan 
Missions, by a very severe gu n-shot. It is a great 



16 



EXPLORERS AND PlOXEETis OF MINNESOTA. 



misfortune that this wound Will prevent him go- 
ing hack again, for he is a man of capacity." 
In the order to Du Luth assigning turn to duty 

at the post on the .site of the modern Fort Gra- 
tiot, above the city of Detroit, the Governor of 
Canada said: " If you can so arrange your affairs 
that your brother can be near you in the Spring, 
I shall be very glad. He is an intelligent lad, 
and might be a great assistance to you; he might 
also be very serviceable to us." 

This lad, Greysolon de la Tourette, during the 
winter of 1686-7 was trading among the Assina- 
boines and other tribes at the west end of Lake 
Superior, but, upon receiving a dispatch, hastened 
to his brother, journeying in a canoe without any 
escort from Mackinaw. He did not arrive until 
after the battle with the Senecas. Governor Den- 
onville, on the 25th of August, 1687, wrote: 

■■ Du Luth's brother, who has recently arrived 
from the rivers above the Lake of the Allempi- 
gons [Nipegon], assures me that he saw more than 
fifteen hundred persons come to trade with him, 
and they were very sorry he had not goods suffi- 
cient to satisfy them. They are of the tribes ac- 
customed to resort to the English at Port Nelson 
and River Bourbon, where, they say, they did not 
go this year, through Sieur Du Lhu's influence." 
After the battle in the vicinity of Rochester, 
New York, Du Luth, with his celebrated cousin, 
Henry Tonty, returned together as far as the post 
above the present city of Detroit, Michigan, but 
this point, after 1688, was not again occupied. 

From this period Du Luth becomes less prom- 
inent. At the time when the Jesuits attempted 
to exclude brandy from the Indian country a bit- 
ter controversy arose between them and the 
traders. Cadillac, a Gascon by birth, command- 
ing Fort Buade, at Mackinaw, on August 3, 1695, 
wrote to Count Frontenac: "Now, what reason 
can we assign that the savages should not drink 
brandy bought with their own money as well as 
we? Is it prohibited to prevent them from be- 
coming intoxicated? Or is it because the use of 
brandy reduces them to extreme .misery, placing 
it out of their power to make war by depriving 
them of clothing and arms? If such representa- 
tions in regard to the Indians have been made to 
the Count, they are very false, as every one knows 
who is acquainted with the ways of the savages. 
* * * It is bad faith to represent to the Count 



that the sale of brandy reduces the savage to a 
slate of nudity, arid by that means places it out 
of his power to make war, since he never goes to 
war in any other condition. * * * Perhaps it 
will be said that the sale of brandy makes the 
labors of the missionaries unfruitful. It is neces- 
sary to examine this proposition. If the mission- 
aries care for only the extension of commerce, 
pursuing the course they have hitherto, I agree 
to it; but if it is the use of brandy that hinders 
the advancement of the cause of God, I deny it, 
for it is a fact which no one can deny that there 
are a great number of savages who never drink 
brandy, yet who are not, for that, better Chris- 
tians. 

" All the Sioux, the most numerous of all the 
tribes, who inhabit the region along the shore of 
Lake Superior, do not even like the smell of 
brandy. Are they more advanced in religion for 
that? They do not wish to have the subject men- 
tioned, and when the missionaries address them 
they only laugh at the foolishness of preaching. 
Yet these priests boldly fling before the eyes of 
Europeans, whole volumes filled with glowing 
descriptions of the conversion of souls by thou- 
sands in this country, causing the poor missiona- 
ries from Europe, to run to martyrdom as flies to 
sugar and honey." 

Du Luth, or Du Lhut, as he wrote his name, 
during this discussion, was found upon the side 
of order and good morals. His attestation is as 
follows : "I certify that at different periods I 
have lived about ten years among the Ottawa 
nation, from the time that I made an exploration 
to the Nadouecioux people until Fort Saint Jo- 
seph was established by order of the Monsieur 
Marquis Denonville, Governor General, at the 
head of the Detroit of Lake Erie, which is in the 
Iroquois country, and which I had the honor to 
command. During this period, I have seen that 
the trade in eau-de-vie (brandy) produced great 
disorder, the father kilhng the son, and the son 
throwing his mother into the fire; and I maintain 
that, morally speaking, it is impossible to export 
brandy to the woods and distant missions, with- 
out danger of its leading to misery." 

Governor Frontenac, in an expedition against 
the Oneidas of New York, arrived at Fort Fron- 
tenac, on the 19th of July, 1695, and Captain Du 
Luth was left in command with forty soldiers, 



DU LTJTH AFFLICTED WITH GOUT. 



17 



and masons and carpenters, with orders to erect 
new buildings. In about four weeks he erected 
a building one hundred and twenty feet in length, 
containing officers' quarters, store-rooms, a bakery 
and a chapel. Early in 1697 he was still in com- 
mand of the post, and in a report it is mentioned 
that " everybody was then in good health, except 
Captain Dulhut the commander, who was unwell 
of the gout." 

It was just before \ .'period, that as a member 
of the Roman Catholic Church, he was firmly 
impressed that he had been helped by prayers 
which he addressed I a deceased Iroquois girl, 
who had died in the odor of sanctity, and. as a 
thank offering, signed the following certificate : 
"I, the subscriber, certify to all whom it may 
concern, that having been tormented by the gout, 
for the space of twenty-three years, and with such 



severe pains, that it gave me no rest for the spac 
of three months at a time, I addressed myself to 
Catherine Tegahkouita, an Iroquois virgin de- 
ceased at the Sault Saint Louis, in the reputation 
of sanctity, and I promised her to visit her tomb, 
if God should give me health, through her inter- 
cession. I have been as perfectly cured at the 
end of one novena, which I made in her honor, 
that after five months, I have not perceived the 
slightest touch of my gout. Given at Tort Fron- 
tenac, this 18th day of August, 1696." 

As soon as cold weather returned, his old mal- 
ady again appeared. He died early in A. D. 1710. 
Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, un- 
der date of first of May of that year, wrote to 
Count Pontchartrain, Colonial Minister at Paris, 
" Captain Du Lud died this winter. He was a 
very honest man." 



SXPLOBEES AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER IV. 



FIRST WHITE MEN AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA. 



Falls of St. Anthony Visited by White Men.— La Salle Gives the First Description 

of Upper Mississippi Valley.— Accault, the Lender, Accompanied by Augelle 
ud Hennepin, at Falls of Saint Anthony.— Hennepin Declared Unreliable by 
La Salle.— His Early Life.— His Fust Book Criticised by Abbe Bomou and 
Tronson. — Deceptive Map. — First Meeting with Siouv./— Astonishment at 
Reading His Breviary,— Sioux Name tor Guns.— Aceauli and Hennepin at 
Lake repin.— Leave the River Below Saint Paul.— At Mille Lacs.— A Sweating 
Cabin.— Sioux Wonder at Mariner's Compass.— Fears of an Iron Pot.— Making 
a Dictionary.— Infant Baptised.— Route to the Pacific— Hennepin Descends 
Rum River. - First Visit to Falls of Saint Anthony.— On a Buffalo Hunt.— Meets 
DuLuth.— Returns to Mille Lacs.— With Du Luth at Falls of St. Anthony.— 
Returns to France. — Subsequent Life.— His Books Examined.— Denies in First 
Book HisDescenttotheGulfof Mexico.— Dispute with Du Luth at Falls of St, 
Anthony.— Patronage of Du Luth.— Tribute to Du Luth.— Hennepin's Answer 
to Criticisms.— Denounced by D'Iberville and Father Gravier.— Residence in 

In the summer of 1680, Michael Accault (Ako), 
Heimepin, the Franciscan missionary, Augelle, 
Du Luth, and Faffart all visited the Falls of 
Saint Anthony. 

The first description of the valley of the upper 
Mississippi was -written by La Salle, at Fort 
Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, on the 22d of Au- 
gust, 1682, a month before Hennepin, in Paris, 
obtained a license to print, and some time before 
the Franciscan's first work, was issued from the 
press. 

La Salle's knowledge must have been received 
from Michael Accault, the leader of the expedi- 
tion, Augelle, his comrade, or the clerical attache, 
the Franciscan, Hennepin. 

It differs from Hennepin's narrative in its free- 
dom from bombast, and if its statements are to 
be credited, the Franciscan must be looked on as 
one given to exaggeration. The careful student, 
however, soon learns to be cautious in receiving 
the statement of any of the early explorers and 
ecclesiastics of the Northwest. The Franciscan 
depreciated the Jesuit missionary, and La Salle 
did not hesitate to misrepresent Du Luth and 
others for his own exaltation. La Salle makes 
statements which we deem to be wide of the 
truth when his prejudices are aroused. 

At the very time that the Intendant of Justice 
in Canada is complaining that Governor Fronte- 
nac is a' friend and correspondent of Du Luth, 



La Salle writes to his friends in Paris, that Du 
Luth is looked upon as an outlaw by the governor. 

"While official documents prove that Du Luth 
was in Minnesota a year before Accault and asso- 
ciates, yet La Salle writes: " Moreover, the Na- 
donesioux is not a region which he has discov- 
ered. It is known that it was discovered a long 
time before, and that the Rev. Father Hennepin 
and Michael Accault were there before him." 

La Salle in this communication describes Ac- 
cault as one well acquainted with the language 
and names of the Indians of the Illinois region, 
and also " cool, brave, and prudent," and the head 
of the party of exploration. 

We now proceed with the first description of 
the country above the Wisconsin, to which is 
given, for the first and only time, by any writer, 
the Sioux name, Meschetz Odeba, perhaps in- 
tended for Meshdeke Wakpa, River of the Foxes. 

He describes the Upper Mississippi in these 
words : "Following the windings of the Missis- 
sippi, they found the river Ouisconsing, Wiscon- 
sing, or Meschetz Odeba, which flows between 
Bay of Puans and the Grand river. * * * About 
twenty-three or twenty-four leagues to the north 
or northwest of the mouth of the Ouisconsing, 
* * * they found the Black river, called by the 
jSTadouesioux, Chabadeba [Chapa Wakpa, Beaver 
river] not very large, the mouth of which is bor- 
dered on the two shores by alders. 

" Ascending about thirty leagues, almost at the 
same point of the compass, is the Buffalo river 
[Chippewa], as large at its mouth as that of the 
Illinois. They follow it ten or twelve leagues, 
where it is deep, small and without rapids, bor- 
dered by hills which widen out from time to time 
to form prairies." 

About three o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th 
of April, 1680, the travelers were met by a war 
party of one hundred Sioux in thirty-three birch 
bark canoes. "Michael Accault, who was the 



HEN-tfEPIN- CBlTICISED BY LA SALLE. 



19 



leader," says La Salle, " presented the Calumet.'" 
The Indians were presented by Accault with 
twenty knives and a fathom and a half of tobacco 
and some goods. Proceeding with the Indians 
ten days, on the 22d of April the isles in the Mis- 
sissippi were reached, where the Sioux had killed 
some Maskoutens, and they halted to weep over 
the death of two of their own number ; and to 
assuage their grief, Accault gave them hi trade a 
box of goods and twenty-four hatchets. 

When they were eight leagues below the Falls 
of Saint Anthony, they resolved to go by land to 
their village, sixty leagues distant. They were 
well received ; the only strife among the villages 
was that which resulted from the desire to have 
a Frenchman in their midst. La Salle also states 
that it was not correct to give the impression that 
Du Luth had rescued his men from captivity, for 
they could not be properly called prisoners. 

He continues: "In going up the Mississippi 
again, twenty leagues above that river [Saint 
CroixJ is found the falls, which those I sent, and 
who passing there first, named Saint Anthony. 
It is thirty or forty feet high, and the river is nar- 
rower here than elsewhere. There is a small 
island in the midst of the chute, and the two 
banks of the river are not bordered by high hills, 
which gradually diminish at this point, but the 
country on each side is covered with thin Avoods, 
such as oaks and other hard woods, scattered wide 
apart. 

"The canoes were carried three or four hun- 
dred steps, and eight leagues above was found 
the west [east?] bank of the river of the Xadone- 
sioux, ending in a lake named Issati, which ex- 
pands into a great marsh, where the wild rice 
grows toward the mouth." 

In the latter part of his letter La Salle uses the 
following language relative to his old chaplain: 

'• 1 believed that it was appropriate to make for 
you the narrative of the adventures of this canoe, 
because I doubt not that they will speak of it, and 
if you wish to confer with the Father Louis Hen- 
nepin. Recollect, who has returned to France, you 
must know him a little, because he will not fail 
to exaggerate all things; it is his character, and 
to me he has written as if he were about to be 
burned when he was not even in danger, but he 
believes that it is honorable to act in this manner, 



and he speaks more conformably to that which 
he wishes than to that which he knows." 

Hennepin was born in Ath, an inland town of 
the Netherlands. From boyhood he longed to 
visit foreign lands, and it is not to be wondered 
at that he assumed the priest's garb, for next to 
the soldier's life, it suited one of wandering pro- 
pensities. 

At one time he is on a begging expedition to 
some of the towns on the sea coast. In a few 
months he occupies the post of chaplain at an 
hospital, where he shrives the dying and admin- 
isters extreme unction. From the quiet of the 
hospital he proceeds to the camp, and is present 
at the battle of Seneffe, which occurred in the 
year 1674. 

His whole mind, from the time that he became 
a priest, appears to have been on " things seen 
and temporal," rather than on those that are " un- 
seen and eternal." While on duty at some of the 
ports of the Straits of Dover, he exhibited the 
characteristic of an ancient Athenian more than 
that of a professed successor of the Apostles. 
He sought out the society of Strang, -s " who 
spent their time in nothing else but either to tell 
or to hear some new thing." With perfect non- 
chalance he confesses that notwithstanding the 
nauseating fumes of tobacco, he used to slip be- 
hind the doors of sailors' taverns, and spend days, 
without regard to the loss of his meals, listening 
to the adventures and hair-breadth escapes of the 
mariners in lands beyond the sea. 

In the year 1676, he received a welcome order 
from his Superior, requiring him to embark for 
Canada. Unaccustomed to the world, and arbi- 
trary in his disposition, he rendered the cabin of 
the ship in which he sailed any thing but heav- 
enly. As in modern days, the passengers in a 
vessel to the new world were composed of hete- 
rogeneous materials. There were young women 
going out in search for brothers or husbands, ec- 
clesiastics, and those engaged in the then new, 
but profitable, commerce in furs. One of his 
fellow passengers was the talented and enterpri- 
prising, though unfortunate, La Salle, with whom 
he was afterwards associated. If he is to be 
credited, his intercourse with La Salle was not 
very pleasant on ship-board. The young women, 
tired of being cooped up in the narrow accommo- 
dations of the ship, when the evening was fair 



EXl'LOHEES AND PIONEERS OF M1NNES01A. 



sought the deck, and engaged in the rude dances 
of the French peasantry of that age. Hennepin, 
feeling that it was improper, began to assume 
the air of the priest, and forbade the sport. La 
Salle, feeling- that his interference was uncalled 
for. called him a pedant, and took the side of the 
girls, and during the voyage there were stormy 
discussions. 

Good humor appears to have been restored 
when they left the ship, for Hennepin would oth- 
erwise have not been the companion of La Salle 
in his great western journey. 

Sojourning for a short period at Quebec, the 
adventure-loving Franciscan is permitted to go 
to a mission station on or near tbe site of the 
present town of Kingston, Canada West. 

Here there was much to gratify his love of 
novelty, and he passed considerable time in ram- 
bling among the Iroquois of New York. In 1678 
he returned to Quebec, and was ordered to join 
the expedition of Robert La Salle. 

On the 6th of December Father Hennepin and 
a portion of the exploring party had entered the 
Niagara river. In the vicinity of the Falls, the 
winter was passed, and while the artisans were 
preparing a ship above the Falls, to navigate the 
great lakes, the Recollect whiled away the hours, 
in studying the manners and customs of the Sen- 
eca Indians, and in admiring the sublimest han- 
diwork of God on the globe. 

On the 7th of August, 1679, the ship being 
completely rigged, unfurled its sails to the breezes 
of Lake Erie. The vessel was named the " Grif- 
fin," in honor of the arms of Frontenac, Governor 
of Canada, the first ship of European construc- 
tion that had ever ploughed the waters of the 
great inland seas of North America. 

After encountering a violent and dangerous 
storm on one of the lakes,'during which they had 
given up all hope of escaping shipwreck, on the 
27th of the month, they were safely moored in 
the harbor of ' ' Missilimackinack. " From thence 
the party proceeded to Green Bay, where they 
left the ship, procured canoes, and continued 
along the coast of Lake Michigan. " By the mid- 
dle of January, 1680, La Salle had conducted his 
expedition to the Illinois River, and, on an emi- 
nence near Lake Peoria, he commenced, with 
much heaviness of heart, the erection of a fort, 



which he called Crevecceur, on account of the 
many disappointments he had experienced. 

On the last of February, Accault, Augelle, and 
Hennepin left to ascend the Mississippi. 

The first work bearing the name of the Rev- 
erend Father Louis Hennepin, Franciscan Mis- 
sionary of the Recollect order, was entitled, " De- 
scription de la Louisiane," and in 1683 published 
in Paris. 

As soon as the book appeared it was criticised. 
Abbe Bernou, on the 29th of February, 1684, 
writes from Rome about the "paltry book" (mes- 
hcant livre) of Father Hennepin. About a year 
before the pious Tronson, under date of March 
13, 1683, wrote to a friend: " I have interviewed 
the P. Recollect, who pretends to have descended 
the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico. I do 
not know that one will believe what he speaks any 
more than that which is in the printed relation of 
P. Louis, which I send you that you may make 
your own reflections." 

On the map accompanying his first book, he 
boldly marks a Recollect Mission many miles 
north of the point he had visited. In the Utrecht 
edition of 1697 this deliberate fraud is erased. 

Throughout the work he assumes, that he was 
the leader of the expedition, and magnifies trifles 
into tragedies. For instance, Mr. La Salle writes 
that Michael Accault, also written Ako, who was 
the leader, presented the Sioux with the calu- 
met ;" but Hennepin makes the occurrence more 
formidable. 

,He writes : " Our prayers were heard, when on 
the 11th of April, 1680, about two o'clock in the 
afternoon, we suddenly perceived thirty -three 
bark canoes manned by a hundred and twenty 
Indians coming down with very great speed, on a 
war party, against the Miamis, Illinois and Maro- 
as. These Indians surrounded us, and while at 
a distance, discharged some arrows at us, but as 
they approached our canoe, the old men seeing us 
with the calumet of peace in our hands, prevent- 
ed the young men from killing us. These sava- 
ges leaping from their canoes, some on land, 
others into the water, with frightful cries and 
yells approached us, and as we made no resist- 
ance, being only three against so great a number, 
one of them wrenched our calumet from our 
hands, while our canoe and theirs were tied to 
the shore. We first presented to them a piece of 



HENNEPIN'S DIFFICULTY WITH PBAYEB-BOOK. 



21 



French tobacco, better for smoking than theirs- 
and the eldest among them uttered the words' 
" Miamiha, Miamiha." 

" As we did not understand their language, we 
took a little stick, and by signs which we made 
on the sand, showed them that their enemies, the 
Miamis, whom they sought, had fled across the 
river Colbert [Mississippi] to join the Islinois; 
when they saw themselves discovered and unable 
to surprise their enemies, three or four old men 
laying their hands on my head, wept in a mourn- 
ful tone. 

" With a spare handkerchief I had left I wiped 
away their tears, but they would not smoke our 
Calumet. They made us cross the river with 
great cries, while all shouted with tears in their 
eyes; they made us row before them, and we 
heard yells capable of striking the most resolute 
with terror. After landing our canoe and goods, 
part of which had already been taken, we made a 
fire to boil our kettle, and we gave them two large 
wild turkeys which we had killed. These Indians 
having called an assembly to deliberate what they 
were to do with us, the two head chiefs of the 
party approaching, showed us by signs that the 
warriors wished to tomahawk its. This com- 
pelled me to go to the war chiefs with one young 
man, leaving the other by our property, and 
throw into their midst six axes, fifteen knives 
and six fathom of our black tobacco ; and then 
bringing down my head. I showed them with an 
axe that they might kill me, if they thought 
proper. Tins present appeased many individual 
members, who gave us some beaver to eat. put- 
ting the three first morsels into our mouths, accor- 
ding to the custom of the country, and blowing on 
the meat, which was too hot, before putting the 
bark dish before us to let us eat as we liked. We 
spent the night in anxiety, because, before reti- 
ring at night, they had returned us our peace 
calumet. 

" Our two boatmen were resolved to sell their 
lives dearly, and to resist if attacked ; their arms 
and swords were ready. As for my own part, I 
determined to allow myself to be killed without 
any resistance ; as I was going to announce to 
them a God who had been foully accused, un- 
justly condemned, and cruelly crucified, without 
showing the least aversion to those who put him 
to death. We watched in turn, in our anxiety, 



so as not to be surprised asleep. The next morn- 
ing, a chief named Narrhetoba asked for the 
peace calumet, filled it with willow bark, and all 
smoked. It was then signified that the white 
men were to return with them to their villages." 

In his narrative the Franciscan remarks, "I 
found it difficult to say my office before these 
Indians. Many seeing me move my lips, said in 
a fierce tone. ' Ouakanche.' Michael, all out of 
countenance, told me, that if I continued to say 
my breviary, Ave should all three be killed, and 
the Picard begged me at least to pray apart, so as 
not to provoke them. I followed the latter's 
advice, but the more I concealed myself the more 
I had the Indians at my heels ; for when I en- 
tered the wood, they thought I was going to hide 
some goods under ground, so that I knew not on 
what side to turn to pray, for they never let me 
out of sight. This obliged me to beg pardon of 
my canoe -men, assuring them I could not dis- 
pense with saying my office. By the word, ' Ou- 
akanche,' the Indians meant that the book I was 
reading was a spirit, but by their gesture they 
nevertheless showed a kind of aversion, so that 
to accustom them to it, I chanted the litany of 
the Blessed Virgin in the canoe, with my book 
opened. They thought that the breviary was a 
spirit which taught me to sing for their diversion ; 
for these people are naturally fond of singing." 

This is the first mention of a Dahkotah word 
in a European book. The savages were annoyed 
rather than enraged, at seeing the white man 
reading a book, and exclaimed, "Wakan-de!" 
this is wonderful or supernatural. The war 
party was composed of several bands of the M'de- 
wahkantonwan Dahkotahs, and there was a di- 
versity of opinion in relation to the disposition 
that should be made of the white men. The 
relatives of those who had been killed by the 
Miamis, were in favor of taking their scalps, but 
others were anxious to retain the favor of the 
French, and open a trading intercourse. 

Perceiving one of the canoe-men shoot a wild 
turkey, they called the gun, " Manza Ouackange," 
iron that has understanding; more correctly, 
" Maza Wakande," this is the supernatural metal. 

Aquipaguetin, one of the head men, resorted 
to the following device to obtain merchandise. 
Says the Father, " This wily savage had the 
bones of some distinguished relative, which he 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



preserved with great care in some skins dressed 
and adorned with several rows of black and red 
porcupine (pulls. From time to time he assem- 
bled his men to give it a smoke, and made us 
come several days to cover the bones with goods, 
and by a present wipe away the tears he had shed 
for him. and for his own son killed by the Miamis. 
To appease this captious man, we threw on the 
bones several fathoms of tobacco, axes, knives, 
beads, and some black and white wampum brace- 
lets. * * * We slept at the point of the Lake 
of Tears [Lake Pepin], which we so called from 
the tears which this chief shed all night long, or 
by one of his sons whom he caused to weep when 
he grew tired." 

The next day, after four or five leagues' sail, a 
chief came, and telling them to leave their canoes, 
he pulled up three piles of grass for seats. Then 
taking a piece of cedar full of little holes, he 
placed a stick into one, which he revolved between 
the palms of his hands, until he kindled a fire, 
and informed the Frenchmen that they would be 
at JMille Lac in six days. On the nineteenth day 
after their captivity, they arrived in the vicinity 
of Saint Paul, not far, it is probable, from the 
marshy ground on which the Kaposia band once 
lived, and now called Pig's Eye. 

The journal remarks, " Having arrived on the 
nineteenth day of our navigation, five leagues 
below St. Anthony's Falls, these Indians landed 
us in a bay, broke our canoe to pieces, and se- 
creted their own in the reeds." 

They then followed the trail to Mille Lac, sixty 
leagues distant. As they approached their villa- 
ges, the various bands began to show their spoils. 
The tobacco was highly prized, and led to some 
contention. The chalice of the Father, which 
glistened in the sun, they were afraid to touch, 
supposing it was "wakan." After five days' 
walk they reached the Issati [Dahkotah] settle- 
ments in the valley of the Rum or Knife river. 
The different bands each conducted a Frenchman 
to their village, the chief Aquipaguetin taking 
charge of Hennepin. After marching through 
the marshes towards the sources of Rum river, 
five wives of 'he chief, in three bark canoes, met 
them and took them a short league to an island 
where their cabins were. 

An aged Indian kindly rubbed down the way- 
worn Franciscan; placing him on a bear -skin 



near the live, he anointed his legs and the soles 
of his feet with wildcat oil. 

The son of the chief took great pleasure in car- 
rying upon his bare back the priest's robe with 
dead men's bones enveloped. It was called Pere 
Louis Chinnen. In the Dahkotah language Shin- 
na or Sbinnan signifies a buffalo robe. 

Hennepin's description of his life on the island 
is in these words : 

" The day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, who 
was the head of a large family, covered me with 
a robe made of ten large dressed beaver skins, 
trimmed with porcupine quills. This Indian 
showed me five or six of his wives, telling them, 
as I afterwards learned, that they shouF in fu- 
ture regard me as one of their children. 

" He set before me a bark dish full of fish, and 
seeing that I could not rise from the ground, he 
had a small sweating-cabin made, in which he 
made me enter with four Indians. This cabin he 
covered with buffalo skins, and inside he put 
stones red-hot. He made me a sign to do as the 
others before beginning to sweat, but I merely 
concealed my nakedness with a handkerchief. 
As soon as these Indians had several times 
breathed out quite violently, he began to sing vo- 
ciferously, the others putting their hands on me 
and rubbing me while they wept bitterly. I be- 
gan to faint, but I came out and could scarcely 
take my habit to put on. When he made me 
sweat thus three times a week, I felt as strong as 
ever." 

The mariner's compass was a constant source 
of wonder and amazement. Aquipaguetin hav- 
ing assembled the braves, would ask Hennepin 
to show his compass. Perceiving that the needle 
turned, the chief harangued his men, and told 
them that the Europeans were spirits, capable of 
doing any thing. 

In the Franciscan's possession was an iron pot 
with feet like lions', which the Indians would not 
touch unless their hands were wrapped in buffalo 
skins. The women looked upon it as "wakan," 
and would not enter the cabin where it was. 

" The chiefs of these savages, seeing that I was 
desirous to learn, frequently made me write, 
naming all the parts of the human body ; and as 
I would not put on paper certain indelicate words, 
at which they do not blush, they were heartily 
amused." 



HENNEPIN'S VISIT TO FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 



23 



They often asked the Franciscan questions, to 
answer which it was necessary to refer to his lex- 
icon. This appeared very strange, and, as they 
had no word for paper, they said, " That white 
thing must be a spirit which tells Pere Louis all 
we say." 

Hennepin remarks : " These Indians often 
asked me how many wives and children I had, 
and how old I was, that is, how many winters ; 
for so these natives always count. Sever illu- 
mined by the light of faith, they were surprised 
at my answer. Pointing to our two Frenchmen, 
whom I was then visiting, at a point three leagues 
from our village, I told them that a man among 
us could only have one wife ; that as for me, I 
had promised the Master- of life to live as they 
saw me, and to come and live with them to teach 
them to be like the French. 

" But that gross people, till then lawless and 
faithless, turned all I said into ridicule. - How," 
said they, ' would you have these two men with 
thee have wives? Ours would not live with them, 
for they have hair all over their face, and we have 
none there or elsewhere.' In fact, they were 
never better pleased with me than when I was 
shaved, and from a complaisance, certainly not 
criminal, I shaved every week. 

" As often as I went to visit the cabins, I found 
a sick child, whose father's name was Mamenisi. 
Michael Ako would not accompany me ; the 
Picard du Gay alone followed me to act as spon- 
sor, or, rather, to witness the baptism. 

"I christened the child Antoinette, in honor of 
St. Anthony of Padua, as well as for the Picard's 
name, which was Anthony Auguelle. He was a 
native of Amiens, and nephew of the Procurator- 
General of the Premonstratensians both now at 
Paris. Having poured natural water on the head 
and uttered these words : ' Creature of God, I 
baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' I took half an 
altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands 
of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and put 
it on the body of the baptized child; for as I 
could not say mass for want of wine and vest- 
ments, this piece of linen could not be put to bet- 
ter use than to enshroud the first Christian child 
among these tribes. I do not know whether the 
softness of the linen had refreshed her, but she 
was the next day smiling in her mother's arms, 



who believed that I had cured the child ; but she 
died soon after, to my great consolation. 

" During my stay among them, there arrived 
four savages, who said they were come alone five 
hundred leagues from the west, and had been four 
months upon the way. They assured us there 
was no such place as the Straits of Anian, and 
that they had traveled without resting, except to 
sleep, and had not seen or passed over any great 
lake, by which phrase they always mean the sea. 

" They further informed us that the nation of 
the Assenipoulacs [Assiniboines] who lie north- 
east of Issati, was not above six or seven days' 
journey ; that none of the nations, within their 
knowledge, who lie to the east or northwest, had 
any great lake about their countries, which were 
very large, but only rivers, which came from the 
north. They further assured us that there were 
very few forests in the countries through which 
they passed, insomuch that now and then they 
were forced to make fires of buffaloes' dung to 
boil their food. All these circumstances make it 
appear that there is no such place as the Straits 
of Anian, as we usually see them set down on the 
maps. And whatever efforts have been made for 
many years past by the English and Dutch, to 
find out a passage to the Frozen Sea, they have 
not yet been able to effect it. But by the help of 
my discovery aud the assistance of God, I doubt 
not but a passage may still be found, and that an 
easy one too. 

" For example, we may be transported into the 
Pacific Sea by rivers which are large and capable 
of carrying great vessels, and from thence it is 
n ry easy to go to China and Japan, without cross- 
ing the equinoctial line ; and, in all probability, 
Japan is on the same continent as America.''' 

Hennepin in his first book, thus describes Iris 
first visit to the Falls of St. Anthony : " In the 
beginning of July, 1680, we descended the [Rum] 
River in a canoe southward, with the great chief 
Ouasicoude [Wauzeekootay] that is to say Pierced 
Pine, with about eighty cabins composed of more 
than a hundred and thirty families and about 
two hundred and fifty warriors. Scarcely would 
the Indians give me a place in their little flotilla, 
for they had only old canoes. They went four 
leagues lower down, to get birch bark to make 
some more. Having made a hole in the ground, 
to hide our silver chalice and our papers, till our 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



return from the hunt, ami keeping only our bre- 
viary, so as not to be loaded. I stood on the bank 
of the lake formed by the liver we had called St. 
Francis [now Bom] and stretched out my hand 
to the canoes as they rapidly passed in succession. 

'■Our Frenchmen also had one for themselves, 
which the Indians had given them. They would 
not take me in, Michael Ako saying that he had 
taken me long enough to satisfy him. I was hurt 
at this answer, seeing myself thus abandoned by 
Christians, to whom I had always done good, as 
they both often acknowledged; but God never 
having abandoned me on that painful voyage, in- 
spired two Indians to take me in their little 
canoe, where I had no other employment than to 
bale out with a little bark tray, the water which 
entered by little boles. This I did not do with- 
out getting all wet. This boat might, indeed, be 
called a death box, for its lightness and fragility. 
These canoes do not generally weigh over fifty 
pounds, the least motion of the body upsets them, 
unless you are long accustomed to that kind of 
navigation. 

" On disembarking in the evening, the Picard, 
as an excuse, told me that their canoe was half- 
rotten, and that had we been three in it, we 
should have run a great risk of remaining on the 
way. * * * Tour days after our departure for 
the buffalo hunt, we halted eight leagues above 
St. Anthony of Padua's Palls, on an eminence 
opposite the mouth of the River St. Francis [Rum] 
* * * The Picard and myself went to look for 
haws, gooseberries, and little wild fruit, which 
often did us more harm than good. This obliged 
us to go alone, as Michael Ako refused, in a 
wretched canoe, to Ouisconsin river, which was 
more than a hundred leagues off, to see whether 
the Sieur de la Salle had sent to that place a re- 
inforcement of men, with powder, lead, and 
other munitions, as he had promised us. 

"The Indians would not have suffered this 
voyage bad not one of the three remained with 
them. They wished me to stay, but Michael 
Ako absolutely refused. As we were making the 
portage of our canoe at St. Anthony of Padua's 
Falls, we perceived five or six of our Indians who 
had taken the start ; one of them was up in an 
oak opposite the great fall, weeping bitterly, with 
a rich dressed beaver robe, whitened inside, and 
trimmed with porcupine quills, which he was 



offering as a sacrifice to the falls; which is, in it- 
self, admirable and frightful. I heard him while 
shedding copious tears, say as he spoke to the 
great cataract, l Thou who art a spirit, grant that 
our nation may pass here quietly, without acci- 
dent ; may kill buffalo in abundance ; conquer 
our enemies, and bring in slaves, some of whom 
we will put to death before thee. The Messenecqz 
(so they call the tribe named by the French Outa- 
gamis) have killed our kindred; grant that we 
may avenge them.' This robe offered in sacrifice, 
served one of our Frenchmen, who took it as we 
returned." 

It is certainly wonderful, that Hennepin, who 
knew nothing of the Sioux language a few weeks 
before, should understand the prayer offered at 
the Falls without the aid of an interpreter. 

The narrator continues : "A league beyond 
St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, the Picard was 
obliged to land and get his powder horn, which he 
had left at the Falls. * * * As we descended 
the river Colbert [Mississippi] we found some of 
our Indians on the islands loaded with buffalo 
meat, some of which they gave us. Two hours 
after landing, fifteen or sixteen warriors whom we 
had left above St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, en- 
tered, tomakawkin hand, upset the cabin of those 
who had invited us, took all the meat and bear 
oil they found, and greased themselves from head 
to foot,"' 

This was done because the others had violated 
the rules for the buffalo hunt. With the Indians 
Hennepin went down the river sixty leagues, and 
then went up the river again, and met buffalo. 
He continues : 

"While seeking the Ouisconsin River, that 
savage father, Aquipaguetin, whom I had left, 
and who I believed more than two hundred 
leagues off, on the 11th of July, 1680, appeared 
with the warriors." After this, Hennepin and 
Picard continued to go up the river almost eighty 
leagues. 

There is great confusion here, as the reader 
will see. When at the mouth of the Rum River, 
he speaks of the Wisconsin as more than a hun- 
dred leagues off. He floats down the river sixty 
leagues ; then he ascended, but does not state the 
distance; then he ascends eighty leagues. 

He continues : " The Indians whom he had left 
with Michael Ako at Buffalo [Chippeway] River, 



HENNEPIN MEETS SIEVE DU LUTH. 



25 



•with the flotilla of canoes loaded with meat, came 
down. * * * All the Indian women had their 
stock of meat at the mouth of Buffalo River and 
on the islands, and again we went down the Col- 
bert [Mississippi] about eighty leagues. * * * 
"We had another alarm in our camp : the old men 
on duty on the top of the mountains announced 
that they saw two warriors in the distance ; all 
the bowmen hastened there with speed, each try- 
ing to outstrip the others ; but they brought back 
only two of their enemies, who came to tell them 
that a party of their people were hunting at the 
extremity of Lake Conde [Superior] and had found 
four Spirits (so they call the French) who. by 
means of a slave, had expressed a wish to come 
on, knowing us to be among them. * * * On 
the 25th of July, 1680, as we were ascending the 
river Colbert, after the buffalo hunt, to the In- 
dian villages. Ave met Sieur du Luth, who came 
to the Xadouessious with five French soldiers. 
They joined us about two hundred and twenty 
leagues distant from the country of the Indians 
who had taken us. As we had some knowledge 
of the language, they begged us to accompany 
them to the villages of these tribes, to which I 
readily agreed, knowing that these two French- 
men had not approached the sacrament for two 
years." 

Here again the number of leagues is confusing. 
and it is impossible to believe that I)u Luth and 
his interpreter Faffart. who had been trading 
with the Sioux for more than a year, needed the 
help of Hennepin, who had been about three 
months with these people. 

"We are not told by what route Hennepin and 
Du Luth reached Lake Issati or Mille Lacs, but 
Hennepin says they arrived there on the 11th of 
August, 1680, and he adds. " Toward the end of 
September, having no implements to begin an 
establishment, we resolved to tell these people. 
that for their benefit, we would have to return to 
the French settlements. The grand Chief of the 
Issati or Xadouessiouz consented, and traced in 
pencil on paper I gave him, the route I should 
take for four hundred leagues. "With this chart. 
we set out. eight Frenchmen, in two canoes, and 
descended the river St. Francis and Colbert [Bum 
and Mississippi]. Two of our men took two bea- 
ver robes at St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, which 
the Indians had hung in sacrifice on the trees." 



The second work of Hennepin, an enlargement 
of the first, appeared at Utrecht in the year 1697, 
ten years after La Salle's death. During the in- 
terval between the publication of the first and 
second book, he had passed three years as Super- 
intendent of the Recollects at Reny in the province 
of Artois, when Father Hyacinth Lefevre, a friend 
of La Salle, and Commissary Provincial of Recol- 
lects at Paris, wished him to return to Canada. 
He refused, and was ordered to go to Rome, and 
upon his coming back was sent to a convent at 
St. Omer, and there received a dispatch from the 
Minister of State in France to return to the coun- 
tries of the King of Spain, of which he was a 
subject. This order, he asserts, he afterwards 
learned was forged. 

In the preface to the English edition of the 
Xew Discovery, published in 1698. in London, he 
writes : 

••The pretended reason of that violent order 
was because I refused to return into America, 
where I had been already eleven years ; though 
the particular laws of our Order oblige none of us 
to go beyond sea against his will. I would have, 
however, returned very willingly had I not known 
the malice of M. La Salle, who would have ex- 
posed me to perish, as he did one of the men who 
accompanied me in my discovery. God knows 
that I am sorry for his unfortunate death ; but 
the judgments of the Almighty are always just, 
for the gentleman was killed by one of his own 
men. who were at last sensible that he exposed 
them to visible dangers without any necessity and 
for bis private designs." 

Alter this he was for about five years at Gosse- 
lies, in Brabant, as Confessor in a convent, and 
from thence removed to his native place, Ath, in 
Belgium, where, according to his narrative in the 
preface to the "Nouvean Decouverte." he was 
again persecuted. Then Father Payez, Grand 
Commissary of Recollects at Louvain, being in- 
formed that the King of Spain and the Elector of 
Bavaria recommended the step, consented that 
he should enter the service of "William the Third 
of Great Britain, who had been very kind to the 
Roman Catholics of Netherlands. By order of 
Payez he was sent to Antwerp to take the lay 
habit in the convent there, and subsequently 
went to Utrecht, where he finished his second 
book known as the Xew Discovery. 



KXI'LOUEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



His first volume, printed in 1688, contains 812 
pages, with an appendix of 107 pages, on the 
Customs of the Savages, while the Utrecht hook 
of 1097 contains 509 pages without an appendix. 

On page 249 of the New Discovery, he begins 
an account of a voyage alleged to have heen made 
to the mouth of the Mississippi, and occupies 
over sixty pages in the narrative. The opening 
sentences give as a reason for concealing to tins 
time his discovery, that La Salle would have re- 
ported him to his Superiors for presuming to go 
down instead of ascending the stream toward the 
north, as had been agreed ; and that the two with 
him threatened that if he did not consent to de- 
scend the river, they would leave him on shore 
during the night, and pursue their own course. 

He asserts that he left the Gulf of Mexico, to 
return, on the 1st of April, and on the 24th left 
the Arkansas ; but a week after this, he declares 
he landed with the Sioux at the marsh about two 
miles below the city of Saint Paul. 

The account has been and is still a puzzle to 
the historical student. In our review of his first 
book we have noticed that as early as 1683, he 
claimed to have descended the Mississippi. In 
the Utrecht publication he declares that while at 
Quebec, upon his return to France, he gave to 
Father Valentine Roux, Commissary of Recol- 
lects, his journal, upon the promise that it would 
be kept secret, and that this Father made a copy 
of his whole voyage, including the visit to the 
Gulf of Mexico ; but in his Description of Louis- 
iana, Hennepin wrote, " We had some design of 
going to the mouth of the river Colbert, which 
more probably empties into the Gulf of Mexico 
than into the Red Sea, but the tribes that seized 
us gave us no time to sail up and down the river." 

The additions in his Utrecht book to magnify 
his importance and detract from others, are 
many. As Sparks and Parkman have pointed 
out the plagiarisms of this edition, a reference 
here is unnecessary. 

Du Luth, who left Quebec in 1678, and had 
been in northern Minnesota, with an interpreter, 
for a year, after he met Ako and Hennepin, be- 
comes of secondary importance, in the eyes of 
the Franciscan. 

In the Description of Louisiana, on page 289, 
Hennepin speaks of passing the Falls of Saint 
Anthony, upon his return to Canada, in these 



few words : " Two of our men seized two heaver 
robes at the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua; 
which the Indians had in sacrifice,' fastened to 
trees." But in the Utrecht edition, commencing 
on page 416, there is much added concerning Du 
Lnth. After using the language of the edition 
of 1683, already quoted it adds: "Hereupon 
there arose a dispute between Sieur du Luth and 
myself. I commended what they had done, say- 
ing, ' The savages might judge by it that they 
disliked the superstition of these people.' The 
Sieur du Luth, on the contrary, said that they 
ought to have left the robes where the savages 
placed them, for they would not fail to avenge 
the insult we had put upon them by this action, 
and that it was feared that they would attack us 
on this journey. I confessed he had some foun- 
dation for what he said, and that he spoke accor- 
ding to the rules of prudence. But one of the 
two men flatly replied, the two robes suited them, 
and they cared nothing for the savages and their 
superstitions. The Sieur du Luth at these words 
was so greatly enraged that he nearly struck the 
one who uttered them, but I intervened and set- 
tled the dispute. The Picard and Michael Ako 
ranged themselves on the side of those who had 
taken the robes in question, which might have 
resulted badly. 

" I argued with Sieur du Luth that the savages 
would*not attack us, because I was persuaded 
that their great chief Ouasicoude would have our 
interests at heart, and he had great credit with 
his nation. The matter terminated pleasantly. 

" When we arrived near the river Ouisconsin, 
we halted to smoke the meat of the buffalo we 
had killed on the journey. During our stay, three 
savages of the nation we had left, came by the 
side of our canoe to tell us that their great chief 
Ouasicoude, having learned that another chief of 
these people wished to pursue and kill us, and 
that he entered the cabin where he was consult- 
ing, and had struck him on the head with such 
violence as to scatter his brains upon his associ- 
ates ; thus preventing the executing of this inju- 
rious project. 

" We regaled the three savages, having a great 
abundance of food at that time. The Sieur du 
Luth, after the savages had left, was as enraged 
as before, and feared that they would pursue and 
attack us on our voyage. He would have pushed 



TBIBUTE TO DANIEL GBEYSOLON DU LUTH. 



27 



the matter further, hut seeing that one man would 
resist, and was not in the humor to be imposed 
upon, he moderated, and I appeased them in the 
end with the assurance that God would not aban- 
don us in distress, and, provided we confided in 
Him, he would deliver us from our foes, because 
He is the protector of men and angels." 

After describing a conference with the Sioux, 
he adds, ••Thus the savages were very kind. 
without mentioning the heaver robes. The chief 
Ouasicoude told me to offer a fathom of Marti- 
nico tobacco to the chief Aquipaguetin. who had 
adopted me as a son. This had an admirable 
effect upon the barbarians, who went off shouting 
several times the word ' Louis,' [Ouis or We] 
which, as he said, means the sun. Without van- 
ity, I must say that my name will be for a long 
time among these people. 

"The savages having left us, to go to war 
against the Messorites, the Maroha. the Illinois, 
and other nations which live toward the lower 
part of the Mississippi, and are irreconcilable foe> 
of the people of the Xorth, the Sieur du Luth. 
who upon many occasions gave me marks of his 
friendship, could not forbear to tell our men that 
I had all the reason in the world to believe that 
tlic Viceroy of Canada would give rne a favorable 
reception, should we arrive before winter, and 
that he wished with all his heart that he had been 
among as many natives as myself." 

The Style of Louis Hennepin is unmistakable 
in this extract, and it is amusing to read his pa- 
tronage of one of the fearless explorers of the 
Northwest, a cousin of Tonty. favored by Fron- 
tenac, and who was in Minnesota a year before 
his arrival. 

In 1691, six years before the Utrecht edition of 
Hennepin, another Recollect Franciscan had pub- 
lished a book at Paris, called " The First Estab- 
lishment of the Faith in New France." in which 
is the following tribute to I)u Luth. whom Hen- 
nepin strives to make a subordinate : " In the last 
years of M. de Frontenac's administration. Sieur 
DuLuth,a man of talent and experience, opened 
a way to the missionary and the Gospel in many 
different nations, turning toward the north of 
that lake [Superior] where he even built a fort, 
he advanced as far as the Lake of the Issati, 
called Lake Buade, from the family name of M. 



de Frontenac, planting the arms of his Majesty 
in several nations on the right and left." 

In the second volume of his last book, which is 
called " A Continuance of the New Discovery of 
a vast Country in America," etc., Hennepin no- 
ticed some criticisms. 

To the objection that his work was dedicated 
to William the Third of Great Britain, he replies : 
■■ My King, his most Catholic Majesty, his Elec- 
toral Highness of Bavaria, the consent in writing 
of the Superior of my order, the integrity of my 
faith, and the regular observance of my vows, 
which his Britannic Majesty allows me, are the 
best warrants of the uprightness of my inten- 
tions." 

To the query, how he could travel so far upon 
the Mississippi in so little time, he answers with 
a bold face, " That we may, with a canoe and a 
pair of oars, go twenty, twenty-five, or thirty 
leagues every day, and more too. if there be oc- 
casion. And though we had gone but ten leagues 
a day. yet in thirty days we might easily have 
gone three hundred leagues. If during the time 
we spent from the river of the Illinois to the 
mouth of the Mesehasipi, in the Gulf of Mexico, 
we had used a little more haste, we might have 
gone the same twice over." 

To the objection, that he said, he nad passed 
eleven years in America, when he had been there 
hut about four, he evasively replies, that "reck- 
oning from the year 1674, when I first set out, to 
the year Kiss, when 1 printed the second edition 
of my ' Louisiana," it appears that I have spent 
fifteen years either in travels or printing my 
Discoveries." 

To those who objected to the statement in his 
first book, in the dedication to Louis the Four- 
teenth, that the Sioux always call the sun Louis, 
he writes: "I repeat what I have said before, 
that being among the Issati and Nadouessans, by 
whom I was made a slave in America, I never 
heard them call the sun any other than Louis. 
It is true these savages call also the moon Louis, 
but with this distinction, that they give the moon 
the name of Louis Bastache, which in their lan- 
guage signifies, the sun that shines in the night." 

The Utrecht edition called forth much censure, 
and no one in France doubted that Hennepin 
was the author. DTberville, Governor of Lou- 
isiana, while in Paris, wrote on July 3d 1699, to 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



the Minister of Marino and Colonies of Fiance, 
in these words : " Very much vexed at the Rec- 
olleet. whose false narratives had deceived every 
one. and caused our suffering and total failure of 
our enterprise, by the time consumed in the 
search of things which alone existed in his imag- 
ination." 

The Rev. Father James Gravier, in a letter 
from a fort on the Gulf of Mexico, near the Mis- 
sissippi, dated February 16th. 1701, expressed the 
sentiment of his times when he speaks of Hen- 
nepin " who presented to King William, the Rela- 
tion of the Mississippi, where he never was, and 
after a thousand falsehoods and ridiculous boasts, 



* * * he makes Mr. de la Salle appear in his 
Relation, wounded with two balls in the head, 
turn toward the Recollect Feather Anastase, to 
ask him for absolution, having been killed in- 
stantly, without uttering a word • and other like 
false stories." 

Hennepin gradually faded out of sight. Bru- 
net mentions a letter written by J. B. Dubos, 
from Rome, dated March 1st, 1701, which men- 
tions that Hennepin was living on the Capitoline 
Hill, in the celebrated convent of Ara Cceli, and 
was a favorite of Cardinal Spada. The time and 
place of his death has not been ascertained. 



NICHOLAS PERROT, FOUNDER OF FIRST POST ON LAKE PEPIN. 



CHAPTEK V. 



NICHOLAS PERROT, FOUNDER OF FIRST POST ON LAKE PEPIN. 



gmiij Life.— Searches for Copper.— Interpreter at Saolt St. Marie, Employed by 
L» Salle.— B«ilds Stockade at Lake Pepin. — Hostile Indians Rebuked. —A 
Silver Ostensorium Given to a Jesuit Chapel.— Perrot in the Battle against 
Senecas , in New York— Second Visit to Sioux Country.— Taking Possession by 
"Proces Verbal." — Discovery of Lead Mines. — Attends Council at Montreal. — 
Establishes a Post near Detroit, in Michigan.— Perrot s Death, and his Wife. 



Nicholas Perrot, sometimes written Pere, was 
one of the most energetic of the class in Canada 
known as " coureurs des bois,"' or forest rangers. 
Born in 1644, at an early age he was identified 
with the fur trade of the great inland lakes. As 
earl} 7 as 1665. he was among the Outagamies 
[Foxes], and in 1667 was at Green Bay. In 1669, 
he was appointed by Talon to go to the lake re- 
gion in search of copper mines. At the formal 
taking possession of that country in the name of 
the King of France, at Sault St. Marie, on the 
14th of May, lb71, he acted as interpreter. In 
1677, he seems to have been employed at Fort 
Frontenac. La Salle was made very sick the 
next year, from eating a salad, and one Nicholas 
Perrot, called Joly Coeur (Jolly Soul) was sus- 
pected of having mingled poison with the food. 
After this he was associated with Du Lath in 
the execution of two Indians, as we have seen. 
In l('s4. he was appointed by De la Bane, the 
Governor of Canada, as Commandant for the 
West, and left Montreal with twenty men. Ar- 
riving at Green Bay in Wisconsin, some Indians 
told him that they had visited countries toward 
the setting sun, where they obtained the blue 
and green stones suspended from their ears and 
noses, and that they saw horses and men like 
Frenchmen, probably the Spaniards of New Mex- 
ico ; and others said that they had obtained hatch- 
ets from persons who lived in a house that walked 
on the water, near the mouth of the river of the 
Assiniboines, alluding to the English established 
at Hudson's Bay. Proceeding to the portage be- 
tween the Fox and Wisconsin, thirteen Hurons 
were met, who were bitterly opposed to the es- 
tablishment of a post near the Sioux. After the 



Mississippi was reached, a party of Winnebagoes 
was employed to notify the tribes of Northern 
Iowa that the French had ascended the river, 
and wished to meet them. It was further agreed 
that prairie fires would be kindled from time to 
time, so that the Indians could follow the French. 

After entering Lake Pepin, near its mouth, on 
the east side, Perrot found a place suitable for a 
post, where there was wood. The stockade was 
built at the foot of a bluff beyond which was a 
large prairie. La Potherie makes this statement, 
which is repeated by Penicaut. who writes of 
Lake Pepin : " To the right and left of its shores 
there are also prairies. In that on the right on 
the bank of the lake, there is a fort, which was 
built by Nicholas Perrot, whose name it yet [1700] 
bears." 

Soon after he was established, it was announced 
that a band of Aiouez [Ioways] was encamped 
above, and on the way to visit the post. The 
French ascended in canoes to meet them, but as 
they drew nigh, the Indian women ran up the 
bluffs, and hid in the woods ; but twenty of the 
braves mustered courage to advance and greet 
Perrot, and bore him to the chief's lodge. The 
chief, bending over Perrot, began to weep, and 
allowed the moisture to fall upon his visitor. 
After he had exhausted himself, the principal 
men of the party repeated the slabbering process. 
Then buffalo tongues were boiled in an earthen 
pot, and after being cut into small pieces, the 
chief took a piece, and. as a mark of respect, 
placed it in Perrot 's mouth. 

During the winter of 1684-85, the French tra- 
ded in Minnesota. 

At the end of the beaver hunt, the Ayoes 
[Ioways] came to the post, but Perrot was absent 
visiting the Nadouaissioux. and they sent a chief 
to notify him of their arrival. Four Illinois met 
him on the way, and were anxious for the return 
of four children held by the French. When the 



so 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



Sioux, who were at war With the Illinois, per- 
ceived them, they wished to seize their canoes, 
lml the French voyageurs who were guarding 
them, pushed into the middle of the river, and 
the French at the post coming to their assistance, 
a reconciliation was effected, and four of the 
Sioux took the Illinois upon their shoulders, and 
bore them to the shore. 

An order having heen received from Denon- 
ville. Governor of Canada, to bring the Miamis, 
and other tribes, to the rendezvous at Niagara, 
to go on an expedition against the Senecas, Per- 
rot entrusting the post at Lake Pepin to a few 
Frenchmen, visited the Miamis, who were dwel- 
ling below on the Mississippi, and with no guide 
but Indian camp fires, went sixty miles into the 
country beyond the river. 

Upon his return, he perceived a great smoke, 
and at first thought that it was a war party pro- 
ceeding to the Sioux country. Fortunately he 
met a Maskouten chief, who had been at the post 
to see him, and he gave the intelligence, that the 
Outagamies [Foxes], Kikapous [Kickapoos], and 
Mascoutechs [Maskoutens], and others, from the 
region of Green Bay, had determined to pillage 
the post, kill the French, and then go to war 
against the Sioux. Hurrying on, he reached the 
fort, and learned that on that very day three 
spies had been there and seen that there were 
only six Frenchmen in charge. 

The next day two more spies appeared, but 
Perrot had taken the precaution to put loaded 
guns at the door of each hut, and caused his men 
frequently to change their clothes. To the query, 
" How many French were there?" the reply was 
given, " Forty, and that more were daily expected, 
who had been on a buffalo hunt, and that the 
guns were well loaded and knives well sharpened. " 
They were then told to go back to their camp 
and bring a chief of each nation represented, and 
that if Indians, in large numbers, came near, they 
would be fired at. In accordance with this mes- 
sage six chiefs presented themselves, After their 
bows and arrows were taken away they were in- 
vited to Perrot's cabin, who gave something to 
eat and tobacco to smoke. Looking at Perrot's 
loaded guns they asked, '-If he was afraid of his 
children?" He replied, he was not. They con- 
tinued, "You are displeased." He answered, 
" I have good reason to be. The Spirit has warned 



me of your designs; you will take my things 
away and put me in the kettle, and proceed 
against the Kadouaissioux, The Spirit told me 
to be on my guard, and he would help me." At 
this they were astonished, and confessed that an 
attack was meditated. That night the chiefs 
slept in the stockade, and early the next morn- 
ing a part of the hostile force was encamped in 
the vicinity, and wished to trade. Perrot had 
now only a force of fifteen men, and seizing the 
chiefs, he told them he would break their heads 
if they did not disperse the Indians. One of the 
chiefs then stood .up on the gate of the fort and 
said to the warriors, " Do not advance, young 
men, or you are dead. The Spirit has warned 
Metaminens [PerrotJ of your designs." They fol- 
lowed the advice, and afterwards Perrot present- 
ed them with two guns, two kettles, and some 
tobacco, to close the door of war against the jSTa- 
douaissioux, and the chiefs were all permitted to 
make a brief visit to the post. 

Keturning to Green Bay in 1686, he passed much i 
time in collecting allies for the expedition against 
the Iroquois in New York. During this year he 
gave to the Jesuit chapel at Depere, five miles 
above Green Bay, a church utensil of silver, fif- 
teen inches high, still in existence. The stand- 
ard, nine inches in height, supports a radiated 
circlet closed with glass on both sides and sur- 
mounted with a cross. This vessel, weighing 
about twenty ounces, was intended to show the 
consecrated wafer of the mass, and is called a 
soleil, monstrance, or ostensorium. 

Around the oval base of the rim is the follow- 
ing inscription: 



jtfMSNwao^ 



A 



tv ?nira aaiV^ 



In 1802 some workmen in digging at Green 
Bay, Wisconsin, on the old Langlade estate dis- 



A CUP OF BRANDT AND WATEB DETECTS A THIEF. 



31 



covered this relic, which is now kept in the vault 
of the Roman Catholic bishop of that diocese. 

During the spring of 1687 Perrot, with De Lu- 
th and Tonty, was with the Indian allies and the 
French in the expedition against the Senecas of 
the Genessee Yalley in Xew York. 

The next year Denonville, Governor of Canada, 
again sent Perrot with forty Frenchmen to the 
Sioux who, says Potherie. •■ were very distant, 
and who would not trade with us as easily as 
the other tribes, the Outagamis [Foxes] having 
boasted of having cut off the passage thereto." 

"When Perrot arrived at Mackinaw, the tribes 
of that region were much excited at the hostility 
of the Outagamis [Foxes] toward the Sauteurs 
[Chippeways]. As soon as Perrot and his party 
reached Green Bay a deputation of the Foxes 
sought an interview. He told them that he had 
nothing to do with this quarrel with the Chippe- 
ways. In justification, they said that a party of 
their young men, in going to war against the 
Xadouaissioux, had found a young man and three 
Chippewa; girls. 

Perrot was silent, and continued his journey 
towards the Xadouaissioux. Soon he was met by 
live chiefs of the Foxes in a canoe, who begged 
him to go to theirvillage. Perrot consented, and 
when he went into a chief's lodge they placed be- 
fore him broiled venison, and raw meat for the 
rest of the French. He refused to eat because, 
said he. ■• that meat did not give him any spirit. 
but lie would take some when the Outagamis 
[Poxes] were more reasonable."" He then eluded 
them for not having gone, as requested by the 
Governor of Canada, to the Detroit of Lake 
Erie, and during the absence of the French light- 
ing with the Chippeways. Having ordered them 
to go oji their beaver hunt and only fight against 
the Iroquois, he left a few Frenchmen to trade 
and proceeded on his journey to the Sioux coun- 
try. Arriving at the portage between the Fox and 
Wisconsin Rivers they were impeded by ice, but 
witli the aid of some Pottawattomies they trans- 
ported their goods to the Wisconsin, which they 
found no longer frozen. The Chippeways were 
informed that their daughters had been taken 
from the Foxes, and a deputation came to take 
them back, but being attacked by the Foxes, who 
did not know their errand, they fled without se- 
curing the three girls. Perrot then ascended the 



Mississippi to the post which in 1684 he had 
erected, just above the mouth, and on the east 
side of Lake Pepin. 

As soon as the rivers were navigable, the Xa- 
douaissioux came down and escorted Perrot to 
one of their villages, where he was welcomed 
with much enthusiasm. He was carried upon a 
beaver robe, followed by a long line of warriors, 
each bearing a pipe, and singing. After taking 
him around the village, he was borne to the chief's 
lodge, when several came in to weep over his head, 
with the same tenderness that the Ayoes (Ioways) 
did, when Perrot several years before arrived at 
Lake Pepin. " These weepings," says an old 
chronicler " do not weaken their souls. They are 
very good warriors, and reported the bravest in 
that region. They are at war with all the tribes 
at present except the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and 
Ayoes [Ioways]. and even with these they have 
quarrels. At the break of day the Xadouaissioux 
bathe, even to the youngest. They have very tine 
forms, but the women are not comely, and they 
look upon them as slaves. They are jealous and 
suspicions about them, and they are the cause 
of quarrels and blood-shedding. 

•• The Sioux are very dextrous with their ca- 
noes, and they fight unto death if surrounded, 
Their country is full of swamps, which shelter 
them in summer from being molested. One must 
be a Xadouaissioux. to find the way to their vil- 
lages." 

While Perrot was absent in Xew York, fight- 
ing the Senecas, a Sioux chief knowing that few 
Frenchmen were left at Lake Pepin, came with 
one hundred warriors, and endeavored to pillage 
it. Of this complaint was made, and the guilty 
leader was near being put to death by his associ- 
ates. Amicable relations having been formed, 
preparations were made by Perrot to return to 
his post. As they were going away, one of the 
Frenchmen complained that a box of his goods 
had been stolen. Perrot ordered a voyageur to 
bring a cup of water, and into it he poured some 
brandy. He then addressed the Indians and told 
them he would dry up their marshes if the goods 
were not restored; and then he set on fire the 
brandy in the cup, The savages were astonished 
and terrified, and supposed that he possessed su- 
pernatural powers ; and in a little ^-^lethe goods 



82 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



were found and restored to the owner, and the 
French descended to their stoeka.de. 

The Poxes, while Perrot was in the Sioux 
country, changed their village, and settled on the 
Mississippi. Coming np to visit Perrot, they 
asked him to establish friendly relations between 
them and the Sioux. At the time some Sioux 
were at the post trading furs, and at first they 
supposed the French were plotting with the 
Foxes. Perrot, however, eased them by present- 
ing the calumet and saying that the French con- 
sidered the Outagamis [Foxes] as brothers, and 
then adding: "Smoke in my pipe; this is the 
manner with which Onontio [Governor of Can- 
ada] feeds his children." The Sioux replied that 
they wished the Foxes to smoke first. This was 
reluctantly done, and the Sioux smoked, but 
would not conclude a definite peace until they 
consulted their chiefs. This was not concluded, 
because Perrot, before the chiefs came down, 
received orders to return to Canada. 

About this time, in the presence of Father Jo- 
seph James Marest, a Jesuit missionary, Boisguil- 
lot, a trader on the Wisconsin and Mississippi, Le 
Sueur, who afterward built a post below the. Saint 
Croix River, about nine miles from Hastings, the 
following document was prepared: 

" Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the King at 
the post of the Nadouessioux, commissioned by 
the Marquis Denonville, Governor and Lieuten- 
ant Governor of all New France, to manage the 
interests of commerce among all the Indian tribes 
and people of the Bay des Puants [Green Bay], 
Nadouessioux, Mascoutens, and other western na- 
tions of the Upper Mississippi, and to take pos- 
session in the King's name of all the places where 
he has heretofore been and whither he will go: 

" We this day, the eighth of May, one thousand 
six hundred and eighty-nine, do, in the presence 
of the Reverend Father Marest, of the Society of 
Jesus, Missionary among the Nadouessioux, of 
Monsieur de Boisguillot, commanding the French 
in the neighborhood of the Ouiskonche, on the 
Mississippi, Augustin Legardeur, Esquire, Sieur 
de Caumont, and of Messieurs Le Sueur, Hebert, 
Lemire and Blein. 

" Declare to all whom it may concern, that, be- 
ing come from the Bay des Puants, and to the 
Lake of the Ouiskonches, we did transport our- 
selves to the country of the Nadouessioux, on the 



border of the river St. Croix, and at the mouth 
of the river St. Pierre, on the bank of which were 
the Mantantans, and further up to the interior, 
as far as the Metichokatonx [Med-ay-wah-kawn- 
twawn], with whom dwell the majority of the 
Songeskitons [Se-see-twawns] and other JSTadou- 
essioux who are to the northwest of the Missis- 
sippi, to take possession, for and in the name of 
the King, of the countries and rivers inhabited by 
the said tribes, and of which they are proprietors. 
The present act done in our-presence, signed with 
our hand, and subscribed." 

The three Chippeway girls of whom mention 
has been made were still with the Foxes, and 
Perrot took them with him to Mackinaw, upon 
his return to Canada. 

While there, the Ottawas held some prisoners 
upon an island not far from the mainland. The 
Jesuit Fathers went over and tried to save the 
captives from harsh treatment, but were unsuc- 
cessful. The canoes appeared at length near each 
other, one man paddling in each, while the war- 
riors were answering the shouts of the prisoners, 
who each held a white stick in his hand. As 
they neared the shore the chief of the party made 
a speech to the Indians who lived on the shore, 
and giving a history of the campaign, told them 
that they were masters of the prisoners. The 
warriors then came on land, and, according to 
custom, abandoned the spoils. An old man then 
ordered nine men to conduct the prisoners to a 
separate place. The women and the young men 
formed* a line with big sticks. The young pris- 
oners soon found their feet, but the old men were 
so badly used they spat blood, and they were con- 
demned to be burned at the Mamilion. 

The Jesuit Fathers and the French officers 
were much embarrassed, and feared that the Iro- 
quois would complain of the little care whijh had 
been used to prevent cruelty. 

Perrot, in this emergency, walked to the place 
where the prisoners were singing the death dirge, 
in expectation of being burned, and told them to 
sit down and be silent. A few Ottauwaws rudely 
told them to sing on, but Perrot forbade. He 
then went back to the Council, where the old men 
had rendered judgment, and ordered one prisoner 
to be burned at Mackinaw, one at Sault St. Marie 
and another at Green Bay. Undaunted he spoke 
as follows : "I come to cut the strings of the 



PERROT VISITS THE LEAD MIXES. 



33 



dogs. I will not suffer them to be eaten . I have 
pity on them, since my Father, Onontio, has com- 
manded me. You Outaouaks [Ottawaws] are 
like tame bears, who will not recognize them who 
has brought them up. You have forgotten Onon- 
tio's protection. When he asks your obedience, 
you want to rule over him, and eat the flesh of 
those children he does not wish to give to you. 
Take care, that, if oyu swallow them, Onontio 
will tear them with violence from between your 
teeth. I speak as a brother, and I think I am 
showing pity to your children, by cutting the 
bonds of your prisoners." 

His boldness had the desired effect. The pris- 
oners were released, and two of them were sent 
with him to Montreal, to be returned to the Iro- 
quois. 

On the 22nd of May, 1690, with one hundred 
and forty-three voyageurs and six Indians, Per- 
rot left Montreal as an escort of Sieur de Lou- 
vigny La Porte, a half-pay captain, appointed to 
succeed Durantaye at Mackinaw, by Frontenac. 
the new Governor of Canada, who in October of 
the previous year had arrived, to take the place 
of Denonville. 

Perrot, as he approached Mackinaw, went in 
advance to notify the French of the coming of 
the commander of the post. As he came in Bight 
of the settlement, he hoisted the white flag with 
the lleur delis and the voyageurs shouted, --Long 
live the king! " Louvigny soon appeared and was 
received by one hundred "coureur des bois" 
under arms. 

From Mackinaw, Perrot proceeded to Green 
Bay, and a party of Miainis there begged him to 
make a trading establishment on the Mississippi 
towards the Ouiskonsing( Wisconsin.) The chief 
made him a present of a piece of lead from a 
mine which he had found in a small stream which 
flows into the Mississippi. Perrot promised to 
visit him within twenty days, and the chief then 
returned to his village below the d*Ouiskonche 
(iWsconsin) River. 

Having at length reached his post on Lake 
Pepin, he was informed that the Sioux were 
forming a large war party against the Outaga- 
mis (Foxes) and other allies of the French. He 
gave notice of his arrival to a party of about four 
hundred Sioux who were on the Mississippi. 



They arrested the messengers and came to the 
post for the purpose of plunder. Perrot asked 
them why they acted in this manner, and said 
that the Foxes, Miamis, Kickapoos, Illinois, and 
Maskoutens had united in a war party against 
them, but that he had persuaded them to give it 
up, and now he wished them to return to their 
families and to their beaver. The Sioux declared 
that they had started on the war-path, and that 
they were ready to die. After they had traded 
their furs, they sent for Perrot to come to their 
camp, and begged that he would not hinder them 
from searching for their foes. Perrot tried to dis- 
suade them, but they insisted that the Spirit had 
given them men to eat, at three days' journey 
from the post Then more powerful influences 
were used. After giving them two kettles and 
some merchandise, Poerrt spoke thus: " I love 
your life, and I am sure you will be defeated. 
Your Evil Spirit has deceived you. If you kill 
the Outagamis, or their allies, you must strike me 
first; if you kill them, you kill me just the same, 
for I hold them under one wing and you under 
the other."' After this he extended the calumet, 
which they at first refused; but at length a chief 
said he was right, and. making invocations to the 
sun, wished Perrot to take him back to his arms. 
This was granted, on condition that he would 
give up his weapons of war. The chief then tied 
them to a pole in the centre of the fort, turning 
them toward the sun. He then persuaded the 
other chiefs to give up the expedition, and, send- 
ing for Perrot, he placed the calumet before him, 
one end in the earth and the other on a small 
forked twig to hold it firm. Then he took from 
his own sack a pair of his cleanest moccasins, and 
taking off Perrot *s shoes, put on these. After he 
had made him eat, presenting the calumet, he 
said: " We listen to you now. Do for us as you 
do for our enemies, and prevent them from kill- 
ing us, and we will separate for the beaver hunt. 
The sun is the witness of our obedience." 

After this, Perrot descended the Mississippi 
and revealed to the Maskoutens, who had come to 
meet him, how he had pacified the Sionx. He, 
about this period, in accordance with his prom- 
ise, visited the lead mines. He found the ore 
abundant " but the lead hard to work because it 
lay between rocks which required blowing up. 
It had very little dross and was easily melted." 



84 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



Peoicaut, who ascended the Mississippi in 1700, 
wrote that twenty leagues below the Wisconsin, 
on both sides of the Mississippi, were mines of 
lead called " Nicolas Perrob's." Early French 
maps indicate as the locality of lead mines the 
site of modern towns, Galena, in Illinois, and Du- 
buque, in Iowa. 

In August, 1693, about two hundred French- 
men from Mackinaw, with delegates from the 
tribes of the West, arrived at Montreal to at- 
tend a grand council called by Governor Fronte- 
nac, and among these was Perrot. 

On the first Sunday in September the governor 



gave the Indians a great feast, after which they 
and the traders began to return to the wilder- 
ness. Perrot was ordered by Frontenac to es- 
tablish a new post for the Miamis in Michigan, 
in the neighborhood of the Kalamazoo Eiver. 

Two years later he is present again, in August, 
at a council in Montreal, then returned to the. 
West, and in 1699 is recalled from Green Bay. 
In 1701 he was at Montreal acting as interpreter, 
and appears to have died before 1718: his wife 
was Madeline Eaclos, and his residence was in 
the Seigneury of Becancourt, not far from Three 
Bivers, on the St. Lawrence. 



BABOX LA HONTAN* 8 FABULOUS VOYAGE. 



CHAPTEK VI. 



BARON LA HONTAXS FABULOrs VOYAGE. 



A Hontan, a Gascon by Birth.— Early Life.— Description of Fox and Wisconsin 
Rivers —Indian yeast— Alleged Ascent of Long River.— Bobe Exposes the 
ute to the Pacific. 



The • Travels " of Baron La Hontan appeared 
in A. D. 1703, both at London and at Hague, and 
•were as saleable and readable as those of Hennepin, 
which were on the counters of booksellers at the 
same time. 

La Hontan, a Gascon by birth, and in style of 
writing, when about seventeen years of age, ar- 
rived in Canada, in 1683. as a private soldier, and 
was with Gov. De la Barre in his expedition of 
1684. toward Niagara, and was also in the battle 
near Rochester. New York, in 1687. at which l)u 
Luth and Perrot, explorers of Minnesota, were 
present. 

In 1688 he appears- to have been sent to Fort 
St. Joseph, which was built by Du Luth, on the 
St. Clare River, near the site of Fort Gratiot, 
Michigan. It is possible that he may have accom- 
panied Perrot to Lake Pepin, who came about 
this time to reoccupy his old post. 

From the following extracts it will be seen that 
his style is graphic, and that he probably had been 
in 1688 in the valley of the Wisconsin. At Mack- 
inaw, after his return from his pretended voyage 
of the Long River, he writes: 

" I left here on the 24th September, with my 
men and five Outaouas, good hunters, whom I 
have before mentioned to you as having been of 
good service to me. All my brave men being 
provided with good canoes, filled with provisions 
and ammunition, together with goods for the In- 
dian trade, I took advantage of a north wind, and 
in three days entered the Bay of the Pouteouata- 
mis, distant from here about forty leagues. The 
entrance to the bay is full of islands. It is ten 
leagues wide and twenty-five in length. 

" On the 29th we entered a river, which is quite 
deep, whose waters are so affected by the lake 
that they often rise and fall three feet in twelve 



hours. This is an observation that I made dur- 
ing these three or four days that I passed here. 
The Sakis, the Poutouatamis, and a few of the 
Malominis have their villages on the border of this 
river, and the Jesuits have a house there. In the 
place there is carried on quite a commerce in furs 
and Indian corn, which the Indians traffic with 
the ' coureurs des bois' that go and come, for it is 
their nearest and most convenient passage to the 
Mississippi. 

" The lands here are very fertile, and produce, 
almost without culture, the wheat of our Europe, 
peas, beans, and any quantity of fruit unknown 
in France. 

• The moment I landed, the warriors of three 
nations came by turns to my cabin to entertain 
me with the pipe and chief dance ; the first in 
proof of peace and friendship, the second to indi- 
cate their esteem and consideration for me. In 
return, I gave them several yards of tobacco, and 
beads, with which they trimmed their capots. The 
next morning. I was asked as a guest, to one of 
the feasts of this nation, and after having sent my 
dishes, which is the custom, I went towards noon. 
They began to compliment me of my arrival, and 
after hearing them, they all, one after the other, 
began to sing and dance, in a manner that I will 
detail to you when I have more leisure. These 
songs and dances lasted two hours, and were sea- 
soned with whoops of joy, and quibbles that they 
have woven into their ridiculous musique. Then 
the captives waited upon us. The whole troop 
were seated in the Oriental custom. Each one 
had his portion before him, like our monks in 
their refectories. They commenced by placing 
four dishes before me. The first consisted of two 
white fish simply boiled in water. The second 
was chopped meats with the boiled tongue of a 
bear ; the third a beaver's tail, all roasted. They 
made me drink also of a syrup, mixed with water, 
made out of the maple tree. The feast lasted two 



EXPLORERS AM) PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



hours, after which, l tequested a chief of the 

nation to sins;' tor me; for it is the custom, when 
we have business with them, to employ an inferior 
for self in all the ceremonies they perform. I 
gave him several pieces of tobacco, to oblige him 
to keep the party till dark. The next day and the 
day following, I attended the feasts of the other 
nations, where I observed the same formalities." 

lie alleges that, on the 23d of October, he 
reached the Mississippi Eiver, and, ascending, on 
the 3d of November he entered into a river, a 
tributary from the west, that was almost without 
a current, and at its mouth filled with rushes. 
He then describes a journey of five hundred miles 
up this stream. He declares he found upon its 
banks three great nations, the Eokoros, Essa- 
napes, and Gnacsitares, and because he ascended 
it for sixty days, he named it Long Eiver. 

For years his wondrous story was believed, and 
geographers hastened to trace it upon their maps. 
But in time the voyage up the Long Kiver was 
discovered to be a fabrication. There is extant 
a letter of Bobe, a Priest of the Congregation of 
the Mission, dated Versailles, March 15, 1716, and 
addressed to De LTsle, the geographer of the 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, which exposes the 
deception. 

He writes: " It seems to me that you might 
give the name of Bourbonia to these vast coun- 
tries which are between the Missouri, Mississippi, 
and the Western Ocean. Would it not be well to 
efface that great river which La Hontan says he 
discovered? 

"All the Canadians, and even the Governor 
General, have told me that this river is unknown. 
If it existed, the French, who are on the Illinois, 
and at Ouabache, would know of it. The last 
volume of the ' Lettres Edifiantes' of the Jesuits, 
in which there is a very fine relation of the Illinois 
Country, does not speak of it, any more than the 
letters which I received this year, which tell won- 
ders of the beauty and goodness of the country. 
They send me some quite jpretty work, made by 
the wife of one of the principal chiefs. 

" They tell me, that among the Scioux, of the 
Mississippi, there are always Frenchmen trading; 
that the course of the Mississippi is from north 
to west, and from west to south; that it is known 
that toward the source of the Mississippi there is 
a river in the highlands that leads to the western 



ocean; that the Indians say that they have seen 
bearded men with caps, who gather gold-dust on 
the seashore, but that it is very far from this 
count ry, and that they pass through many nations 
unknown to the French. 

" I have a memoir of La Motte Cadillac, form- 
erly Governor of Missilimackinack, who says that 
if St. Peters [MinnesotaJ River is ascended to its 
source they will, according to all appearance, find 
in the highland another river leading to the West- 
ern Ocean. 

"For the last two years I have tormented 
exceedingly the Governor-General, M. Baudot, 
and M. Duche, to move them to discover this 
ocean. If I succeed, as I hope, we shall hear 
tidings before three years, and I shall have the 
pleasure and the consolation of having rendered 
a good service to Geography, to Religion and to 
the State." 

Charlevoix, in his History of New France, al- 
luding to La Hontan 's voyage, writes: "The 
voyage up the Long River is as fabulous as the 
Island of Barrataria, of which Sancho Panza was 
governor. Nevertheless, in France and else- 
where, most people have received these memoirs 
as the fruits of the travels of a gentleman who 
wrote badly, although quite lightly, and who had 
no religion, but who described pretty sincerely 
what he had seen. The consequence is that the 
compilers of historical and geographical diction- 
aries have almost always followed and cited them 
in preference to more faithful records." 

Even in modern times, Nicollet, employed by 
the United States to explore the Upper Mississ- 
ippi, has the following in his report: 

"Having procured a copy of La Hontan's 
book, in which there is a roughly made map of 
his Long River, I was struck with the resem- 
blance of its course as laid down with that of 
Cannon River, which I had previously sketched 
in my own field-book. I soon convinced myself 
that the principal statements of the Baron in ref- 
erence to the country and the few details he gives 
of the physical character of the the river, coin- 
cide remarkably with what I had laid down as 
belonging to Cannon River. Then the lakes and 
swamps corresponded; traces of Indian villages 
mentioned by him might be found by a growth 
of wild grass that propagates itself around all old 
Indian settlements." 



LE SUEUB, EXPLOBEB OF THE MINNESOTA BIVEB. 



CHAPTER VII. 



LE SUEUR, EXPLORER OF THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 



Le Sueur Visits Lake Pepin.— Stationed at La Funic— Establishes a Post on an 
Island Above Lake Pepin.— Island Described by Peniraut.— Kirst S oux Chief 
at Montreal. — Ojibway Chiefs' Speeches. — Speech of Sioux Chief.— Teeoskah* 
tay's Death.— Le Sueur Goes to France.— Posts West of Mackinaw Abandoned 
— Le Sueur's License Revoked.— Second Visit to France.— Arrives in Gulf of 
Mexico with D'Iberville.— Ascends the Mississippi.— Lead Mines.— Canadians 
Fleeing from the Sioux.— At the Mouth of the Wisconsin.— Sioux Robbers,— Elk 
Hunting.— Lake Pepin Described.— Rattlesnakes.— La Place Killed.— St. Cwdi 
River Named After a Frenchman.— Le Sueur Reaches St. Pierre, now Minne" 
sota River— Enters Mankahto, or Blue Earth, River.— Sioux of the Plains.— 
Fort L'Huillier Completed.— Conferences with Sioux Bands — Assinahoines a 
Separated Sioux Band. — An Indian Feast.— Names of the Sioux Bands.— Char- 
levoix's Account.— Le Sueur Goes with D'Iberville to France.— D'lbcrvilles 
Memorial.- Early Census of Indian Tribes. -Fcnicaufs Account of Fort L'Huil 
tier.— Le Sueur's Departure fiom the Fart.— D'Bvaqe Left in Charge.— Return" 
to Mobile.— Juchereau at Mouth of Wisconsin. -Bondor a Montreal Merchant' — 
Sioux Attack Miamis.— Boudor Robbed by the Sioux. 



Le Sueur was a native of Canada, and a rela- 
tive of D'Iberville, the early Governor of Louis- 
iana. He came to Lake Pepin in 1683, with 
Nicholas Perrot, and his name also appears at- 
tached to the document prepared in May, 1689, 
after Perrot had re-occupied his post just above 
the entrance of the lake, on the east side. 

In 1092, he was sent by Governor Frontenac of 
Canada, to La Pointe, on Lake Superior, and in a 
dispatch of 1698, to the French Government, is 
the following : " Le Sueur, another voyageur, is 
to remain at Chagouamagon [La Pointe] to en- 
deavor to maintain the peace lately concluded be- 
tween the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and Sioux. 
This is of the greatest consequence, as it is now 
the sole pass by which access can be had to the 
latter nation, whose trade is very profitable; the 
country to the south being occupied by the Foxes 
and Maskoutens, who several times plundered the 
French, on the ground they were carrying ammu- 
nition to the Sioux, their ancient enemies." 

Entering the Sioux country in 1894, lie estab- 
lished a post upon a prairie island in the Missis- 
sippi, about nine miles below the present town of 
Hastings, according to Bellin and others. Peni- 
caut, who accompanied him in the exploration of 
the Minnesota, writes, " At the extremity of the 
lake [Pepin] you come to the Isle Pelee, so called 
because there are no trees on it. It is on this island 



that the French from Canada established their 
fort and storehouse, and they also winter here, 
because game is very abundant. In the month of 
September they bring their store of meat, obtained 
by hunting, and after having skinned and cleaned 
it, hang it upon a crib of raised scaffolding, in 
order that the extreme cold, which lasts from 
September to March, may preserve it from spoil- 
ing. During the whole winter they do not go out 
except for water, when they have to break the ice 
every day, and the abin is generally built upon 
the bank, so as not to have far to go. When 
spring arrives, the savages come to the island, 
bringing their merchandize." 

On the fifteenth of July, 1695, Le Sueur arrived 
at Montreal with a party of Ojibways, and the 
jirst Dakotah brave that had ever visited Canada. 
The Indians were much impressed with the 
power of France by the marching of a detach- 
ment of seven hundred picked men, under Chev- 
alier Cresali. who were on their way to La Chine. 
On the eighteenth, Frontenac, in the presence 
of Callieres and other persons of distinction, gave 
them an audience. 

The first speaker was the chief of the Ojibway 
band at La Pointe, Shingowahbay, who said: 

" That he was come to pay his respects to Onon- 
tio [the title given the Governor of Canada] in the 
name of the young warriors of Point Chagouami- 
gon, and to thank him for having given them 
some Frenchmen to dwell with them; to testify 
their sorrow for one Jobin, a Frenchman, who 
was killed at a feast, accidentally, and not ma- 
liciously. We come to ask a favor of you, which 
is to let us act. We are allies of the Sciou. Some 
Outagamies, or Mascoutins, have been killed. 
The Sciou came to mourn with us. Let us act, 
Father; let us take revenge. 

"Le Sueur alone, who is acquainted with the 
language of the one and the other, can serve us. 
We ask that he return with us." 



EXPLOIiEES AND PIONEERS OF MINNES01A. 



Another speaker of the Ojibways was Le Bro- 
chet. 

Teeoskahtay, the Dahkotah chief, before he 
spoke, spread out a beaver robe, and, laying an- 
other with a tobacco pouch and otter skin, began 
to weep bitterly. After dryiug his tears, he said: 

• % All of the nations had a father, who afforded 
them protection; all of them have iron. But he 
was a bastard in quest of a father; he was come 
to see him, and hopes that he will take pity on 
him." 

He then placed upon the beaver robe twenty- 
two arrows, at each arrow naming a Dahkotah 
village that desired Frontenac's protection. Ke- 
suming his speech, he remarked: 

"It is not on account of what I bring that I 
hope him who rules the earth will have pity on 
me. I learned from the Sauteurs that he wanted 
nothing; that he was the Master of the Iron; that 
he had a big heart, into which he could receive 
all the nations. This has induced me to abandon 
my people and come to seek his protection, and 
to beseech bim to receive me among the number 
of his children. Take courage, Great Captain, 
and reject me not; despise me not, though I ap- 
pear poor in your eyes. All the nations here 
present know that I am rich, and the little they 
offer here is taken from my lands." 

Count Frontenac in reply told the chief that he 
would receive the Dahkotahs as his children, on 
condition that they would be obedient, and that 
he would send back Le Sueur with him. 

Teeoskahtay, taking hold of the governor's 
knees, wept, and said: " Take pity on us; we 
are well aware that we are not able to speak, be- 
ing children; but Le Sueur, who understands our 
language, and has seen all our villages, will next 
year inform you what will have been achieved by 
the Sioux nations represented by those arrows be- 
fore you." 

Having finished, a Dahkotah woman, the wife 
of a great chief whom Le' Sueur had purchased 
from captivity at Mackinaw, approached those in 
authority, and, with downcast eyes, embraced 
their knees, weeping and saying: 

" I thank thee, Father; it is by thy means I 
have been liberated, and am no longer captive." 

Then Teeoskahtay resumed: 

" I speak like a man penetrated with joy. The 
Great Captain; he who is the Master of Iron, as- 



sures me of his protection, and I promise, him that 
if he condescends to restore my children, now 
prisoners among the Foxes, Ottawas and Hurons, 
I will return hither, and bring with me the twen- 
ty-two villages whom he has just restored to life 
by promising to send them Iron." 

On the 14th of August, two weeks after the 
Ojibway chief left for his home on Lake Superior, 
Nicholas Perrot arrived with a deputation of 
Sauks, Foxes, Menomonees, Miamis of Maramek 
and Pottowatomies. 

Two days after, they had a council with the 
governor, who thus spoke to a Fox brave: 

" I see that you are a young man; your nation 
has quite turned away from my wishes; it has 
pillaged some of my young men, whom it has 
treated as slaves. I know that your father, who 
loved the French, had no hand in the indignity. 
You only imitate the example of your father 
who had sense, when you do not co-operate 
with those of your tribe who are wishing to go 
over to my enemies, after they grossly insulted 
me and defeated the Sioux, whom I now consider 
my son. I pity the Sioux; I pity the dead whose 
loss I deplore. Perrot goes up there, and he will 
speak to your nation from me for the release of 
their prisoners; let them attend to him." 

Teeoshkahtay never returned to his native land. 
"While in Montreal he was taken sick, and in 
thirty-three days he ceased to breathe; and, fol- 
lowed by white men, his body was interred in the 
white man's grave. 

Le Sueur instead of going back to Minnesota 
that year, as was expected, went to France and 
received a license, in 1697, to open certain mines 
supposed to exist in Minnesota. The ship in 
which he was returning was captured by the Eng- 
lish, and he was taken to England. After his 
release he went back to France, and, in 1698, ob- 
tained a new commission for mining. 

While Le Sueur was in Europe, the Dahkotas 
waged war against the Foxes and Miamis. In 
retaliation, the latter raised a war party and en- 
tered the land of the Dahkotahs. Finding their 
foes intrenched, and assisted by " coureurs des 
bois," they were indignant; and on their return 
they had a skirmish with some Frenchmen, who 
were carrying goods to the Dahkotahs. 

Shortly after, they met Perrot, and were about 
to burn him to death, when prevented by some 



LE SUEUR ASCENDS THE MISSISIPPI RIVER. 



friendly Foxes. The Miamis, after this, were 
disposed to be friendly to the Iroquois. In 1696, 
the year previous, the authorities at Quebec de- 
cided that it was expedient to abandon all the 
posts west of Mackinaw, and withdraw the French 
from Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

The voyageurs were not disposed to leave the 
country, and the governor wrote to Pontchar- 
train for instructions, in October, 1698. In his 
dispatch he remarks: 

" In this conjuncture, and under all these cir- 
cumstances, we consider it our duty to postpone, 
until new instructions from the court, the execu- 
tion of Sieur Le Sueur's enterprise for the mines, 
though the promise had already been given him 
to send two canoes in advance to Missilimackinac. 
for the purpose of purchasing there some pro- 
visions and other necessaries for his voyage, and 
that he would be permitted to go and join them 
early in the spring with the rest of his hands. 
What led us to adopt this resolution has been, 
that the French who remained to trade off with 
the Five Nations the remainder of their merch- 
andise, might, on seeing entirely new comers 
arriving there, consider themselves entitled to 
dispense with coming down, and perhaps adopt 
the resolution to settle there; wliilst, seeing no 
arrival there, with permission to do what is for- 
bidden, the reflection they will he able to make 
during the winter, and the apprehension of being 
guilty of crime, may oblige them to return in the 
spring. 

" This would be very desirable, in consequence 
of the great difficulty there will be in constraining 
them to it, should they be inclined to lift the mask 
altogether and become buccaneers ; or should 
Sieur Le Sueur, as he easily could do, furnish 
them with goods for their beaver and smaller 
peltry, which he might send down by the return of 
other Frenchmen, whose sole desire is to obey, and 
who have remained only because of the impossi- 
bility of getting their effects down. This would 
rather induce those who would continue to lead a 
vagabond life to remain there, as the goods they 
would receive from Le Sueur's people would afford 
them the means of doing so." 

In reply to this communication, Louis XIV. 
answered that — 

" His majesty has approved that the late Sieur 
de Frontenac and De Champigny suspended the 



execution of the license granted to the man named 
Le Sueur to proceed, with fifty men, to explore 
some mines on the banks of the Mississippi. He 
has revoked said license, and desires that the said 
Le Sueur, or any other person, be prevented from 
leaving the colony on pretence of going in search 
of mines, without his majesty's express permis- 
sion." 

Le Sueur, undaunted by these drawbacks to the 
prosecution of a favorite project, again visited 
France. 

Fortunately for Le Sueur, D 'Iberville, who was 
a friend, and closely connected by marriage, was 
appointed governor of the new territory of Louis- 
iana. In the month of December he arrived from 
France, with thirty workmen, to proceed to the 
supposed mines in Minnesota. 

On the thirteenth of July, 1700, with a felucca, 
two canoes, and nineteen men, having ascended 
the Mississippi, he had reached the mouth of the 
Missouri, and six leagues above this he passed the 
Illinois. He there met three Canadians, who 
came to join him, with a letter from Father Mar- 
est. who had once attempted a mission among the 
Dahkotahs, dated July 13, Mission Immaculate 
Conception of the Holy Virgin, in Illinois. 

" I have the honor to write, in order to inform 
you that the Saugiestas have been defeated by the 
Scioux and Ayavois [Iowas]. The people have 
formed an alliance with the Quincapous [Kicka- 
poos], some of the Mecoutins, Eenards [Foxes], 
and Metesigamias, and gone to revenge them- 
selves, not on the Scioux, for they are too much 
afraid of them, but perhaps on the Ayavois, or 
very likely upon the Paoutees, or more probably 
upon the Osages, for these suspect nothing, and 
the others are on their guard. 

■• As you will probably meet these allied na- 
tions, you ought to take precaution against their 
plans, and not allow them to board your vessel, 
since they arc traitors, and utterly faithless. I pray 
God to accompany you in all your designs." 

Twenty-two leagues above the Illinois, he passed 
a small stream which he called the River of Oxen, 
and nine leagues beyond this he passed a small 
river on the w r est side, where he met four Cana- 
dians descending the Mississippi, on their way to 
the Illinois. On the 30th of July, nine leagues 
above the last-named river, he met seventeen 
Scioux, in seven canoes, who were going to re- 



40 



JUXPLOliMiS AND P10NEHBS OF MINNESOTA. 



venge the death of three Scioux, one of whom had 
been burned, and the others killed, at Tamarois, 

a lew da\ s before his arrival in that village. As 
he had promised the chief of the Illinois to ap- 
pease the Scioux who should go to war against 
his nation, he made a present to the chief of the 
party to engage lihn to turn back. He told them 
the King of France did not wish them to make 
this river more bloody, and that he was sent to tell 
them that, if they obeyed the king's word, they 
would receive in future all things necessary for 
them. The chief answered that he accepted the 
present, that is to say, that he would do as had 
been told him. 

From the 30th of July to the 25th of August, Le 
Sueur advanced fifty-three and one-fourth leagues 
to a small river which he called the River of the 
Mine. At the mouth it runs from the north, but 
it turns to the northeast. On the right seven 
leagues, there is a lead mine in a prairie, one and 
a half leagues. The river is only navigable in 
high water, that is to say, from early spring till 
the month of June. 

From the 25th to the 27th he made ten leagues, 
passed two small rivers, and made himself ac- 
quamted with a mine of lead, from which he took 
a supply. From the 27th to the 30th he made 
eleven and a half leagues, and met five Canadians, 
one of whom had been dangerously wounded in 
the head. They were naked, and had no ammu- 
nition except a miserable gun, with five or six 
loads of powder and balls. They -said they were 
descending from the Scioux to go to Tamarois, 
and, when seventy leagues above, they perceived 
nine canoes in the Mississippi, in which were 
ninety savages, who robbed and cruelly beat them. 
This party were going to war against the Scioux, 
and were composed of four different nations, the 
Outagamies [Foxes], Poutouwatamis [Pottowatta- 
mies], and Puans [Winnebagoes], who dwell in a 
country eighty leagues east of the Mississippi 
from where Le Sueur then was. 

The Canadians determined to follow the detach- 
ment, which was composed of twenty-eight men. 
This day they made seven and a half leagues. 
On the 1st of September he passed the Wisconsin 
river. It inns into the Mississippi from the north- 
east. It is nearly one and a half miles wide. At 
about seventy-five leagues up this river, on the 
right, ascending, there is a portage of more than 



a league. The half of this portage is shaking 
ground, and at the end of it is a small river which 
descends into a bay called Winnebago Bay. It is 
inhabited by a great number of nations who carry 
their furs to Canada. Monsieur Le Sueur came 
by the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi, for the 
first time, in 1683, on his way to the Scioux coun- 
try, where he had already passed seven years at 
different periods. The Mississippi, opposite the 
mouth of the Wisconsin, is less than half a mile 
wide. From the 1st of September to the 6th, our 
voyageur advanced fourteen leagues. He passed 
the river " Aux Canots," which comes from the 
northeast, and then the Quincapous, named from 
a nation which once dwelt upon its banks. 

From the 5th to the 9th he made ten and a half 
leagues, and passed the rivers Cachee and Aux 
Ailes. The same day he perceived canoes, filled 
with savages, descending the river, and the five 
Canadians recognized them as the party who had 
robbed them. They placed sentinels in the wood, 
for fear of being surprised by land, and when 
they had approached within hearing, they cried to 
them that if they approached farther they would 
fire. They then drew up by an island, at half the 
distance of a gun shot. Soon, four of the princi- 
pal men of the band approached in a canoe, and 
asked if it was forgotten that they were our 
brethren, and with what design we had taken 
arms when we perceived them. Le Sueur replied 
that he had cause to distrust them, since they had 
robbed five of his party. Nevertheless, for the 
surety of his trade, being forced to be at peace 
with all the tribes, he demanded no redress for 
the robbery, but added merely that the king, their 
master and his, wished that his subjects should 
navigate that river without insult, and that they 
had better beware how they acted. 

The Indian who had spoken was silent, but an- 
other said they had been attacked by the Scioux, 
and that if they did not have pity on them, and 
give them a little powder, they should not be able 
to reach their villages. The consideration of a 
missionary, who was to go up among the Scioux, 
and whom these savages might meet, induced 
them to give two pounds of powder. 

M. Le Sueur made the same day three leagues; 
passed a stream on the west, and afterward an- 
other river on the east, which is navigable at all 
times, and which the Indians call Red River. 



BATTLESNAKES ON SHORES OF LAKE PEPIN. 



41 



On the 10th, at daybreak, they heard an elk 
whistle, on the other side of the river. A Cana- 
dian crossed in a small Scioux canoe, which they 
had found, and shortly returned with the body of 
the animal, which was very easily killed, " quand 
il est en rut," that is, from the beginning of Sep- 
tember until the end of October. The hunters at 
this time made a whistle of a piece of wood, or 
reed, and when they hear an elk whistle they an- 
swer it. The animal, believing it to be another 
elk, approaches, and is killed with ease. 

From the 10th to the 14th, M. Le Sueur made 
seventeen and a half leagues, passing the rivers 
Raisin and Paquilenettes (perhaps the "VYazi Ozu 
and Buffalo.) The same day he left, on the east 
side of the Mississippi, a beautiful and large river, 
which descends from the very far north, and 
called Bon Secours (Chippeway). on account of the 
great quantity of buffalo, elk, bears and deers 
which are found there. Three leagues up this 
river there is a mine of lead, and seven leagues 
above, on the same side, they found another long 
river, in the vicinity of which there is a copper 
mine, from which lie had taken a lump of sixty 
pounds in a former voyage. In order to make 
these mines of any account, peace must be ob- 
tained between the Scioux and Ouatagamis (Fox- 
es), because the latter, who dwell on the east side 
of the Mississippi, pass this road continually when 
going to war against the Sioux. * 

Fenicaut. in his journal, gives a brief descrip- 
tion of the Mississippi between the Wisconsin 
and Lake Pepin. He writes: --Above the Wis- 
consin, and ten leagues higher on the same side. 
begins a great prairie extending for sixty leagues 
along the bank; this prairie is called Aux Ailes. 
Opposite to Aux Ailes, on the left, there is 
another prairie facing it called Faquilanet which 
is not so long by a great deal. Twenty leagues 
above these prairies is found Lake Bon Secours " 
[Good Help, now Pepin.] 

In this region, at one and a half leagues on the 
northwest side, commenced a lake, which is six 
leagues long and more than one broad, called 
Lake Pepin. It is bounded on the west by a 
chain of mountains; on the east is seen a prairie; 
and on the northwest of the lake there is another 
prairie two leagues long and one wide. In the 
neighborhood is a chain of mountains quite two 
hundred feet high, and more than one and a half 



miles long. In these are found several caves, to 
which the bears retire in winter. Most of the 
caverns are more than seventy feet in extent, and 
two hundred feet high. There are several of 
which the entrance is very narrow, and quite 
closed up with saltpetre, It would be dangerous 
to enter them in summer, for they are filled with 
rattlesnakes, the bite of which is very dangerous. 
Le Sueur saw some of these snakes which were 
six feet in length, but generally they are about 
four feet. They have teeth resembling those of 
the pike, and their gums are full of small vessels, 
in which their poison is placed. The Scioux say 
they take it every mornin r, and cast it away at 
night. They have at the tail a kind of scale which 
makes a noise, and this is ealled the rattle. 

Le Sueur made on this day seven and a half 
leagues, and passed another river, called Hiam- 
bouxecate Ouataba, or the River of Flat Rock. 
[The Sioux call the Cannon river Inyanbosndata.] 

On the loth he crossed a small river, and saw 
in the neighborhood several canoes, filled with 
Indians, descending the Mississippi. lie sup- 
posed they were Scioux, because he could not dis- 
tinguish whether the canoes were large or small. 
The anus were placed in readiness, and soon they 
heard the cry of the savages, which they are ac- 
customed to raise when they rush upon their en- 
emies. He caused them to be answered in the 
same manner; and after Inning placed all the 
men behind the trees, he ordered them not to fire 
until they were commanded, lie remained on 
shore to see what movement the savages would 
make, and perceiving that they placed two on 
shore, on the other side, where from an eminence 
they could ascertain the strength of his forces, he 
caused the men to pass and repass from the shore 
to the wood, in order to make them believe that 
they were numerous. This ruse succeeded, for 
as soon as the two descended from the eminence 
the chief of the party came, bearing the calumet, 
which is a signal of peace among the 'Indians. 
They said that having never seen the French navi- 
gate the river with boats like the felucca, they had 
supposed them to be English, and for that reason 
they had raised the war cry, and arranged them- 
selves on the other side of the Mississippi; but 
having recognized their flag, they had come with- 
out fear to inform them, that one of their num- 
ber, who was crazy, had accidentally killed a 



42 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



Frenchman, and that they would go and bring his 
comrade, who would tell how the mischief had 
happened. 

The Frenchman they brought was Denis, a Ca- 
nadian, and he reported that his companion was 
accidentally killed. His name was Laplace, a de- 
serting soldier from Canada, who had taken ref- 
uge in this country. 

Le Sueur replied, that Onontio (the name they 
give to all the governors of Canada), being their 
father and his, they ought not to seek justification 
elsewhere than before him; and he advised them 
to go and see him as soon as possible, and beg 
him to wipe off the blood of this Frenchman from 
their faces. 

The party was composed of forty-seven men of 
different nations, who dwell far to the east, about 
the forty-fourth degree of latitude. Le Sueur, 
discovering who the chiefs were, said the king 
whom they had spoken of in Canada, had sent 
him to take possession of the north of the river; 
and that he wished the nations who dwell on it, 
as well as those under his protection, to live in 



He made this day three and three-fourths 
leagues; and on the 16th of September, he left a 
large river on the east side, named St. Croix, be- 
cause a Frenchman of that name was shipwrecked 
at its mouth. It comes from the north-northwest. 
Four leagues higher, in going up, is found a small 
lake, at the mouth of which is a very large mass 
of copper. It is on the edge of the water, in a 
small ridge of sandy earth, on the west of this 
lake. [One of La Salle's men was named St. 
Croix.] 

From the 16th to the 19th, he advanced thir- 
teen and three-fourths leagues. After having 
made from Tamarois two hundred and nine and a 
half leagues, he left the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi, to enter the river St. Pierre, on the west 
side. By the 1st of October, he had made in this 
river forty-four and one-fourth leagues. After he 
entered Blue river, thus named on account of the 
mines of blue earth found at its mouth, he found- 
ed his post, situated in forty-four degrees, thir- 
teen minutes north latitude. He met at this 
place nine Scioux, who told him that the river 
belonged to the Scioux of the west, the Ayavois 
(Iowas) and Otoctatas (Ottoes), who lived a little 
farther off; that it was not their custom to hunt 



on ground belonging to others, unless invited to 
do so by the owners, and that when they would 
come to the fort to obtain provisions, they would 
be in danger of being killed in ascending or de- 
scending the rivers, which were narrow, and that 
if they would show their pity, he must establish 
himself on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the St. 
Pierre, where the Ayavois, the Otoctatas, and the 
other Scioux could go as well as they. 

Having finished their speech, they leaned over 
the head of Le Sueur, according to their custom, 
crying out, "Ouaechissou ouaepanimanabo," that 
is to say, " Have pity upon us." Le Sueur had 
foreseen that the establishment of Blue Earth 
river would not please the Scioux of the East, 
who were, so to speak, masters of the other Scioux 
and of the nations which will be hereafter men- 
tioned, because they were the first with whom trade 
was commenced, and in consequence of which they 
had already quite a number of guns. 

As he had commenced his operations not only 
with a view to the trade of beaver but also to 
gain a knowledge of the mines which he had pre- 
viously discovered, he told them that he was sor- 
ry that he had not known their intentions sooner, 
and that it was just, since he came expressly for 
them, that he should establish himself on their 
land, but that the season was too far advanced 
for him to return. He then made them a present 
of powder, balls and knives, and an armful of to- 
bacco, to entice them to assemble, as soon as pos- 
sible, near the fort he was about to construct, 
that when they should be all assembled he might 
tell them the intention of the king, their and Ins 
sovereign. 

The Scioux of the West, according to the state- 
ment of the Eastern Scioux, have more than a 
thousand lodges. They do not use canoes, nor 
cultivate the earth, nor gather wild rice. They 
remain generally on the prairies which are be- 
tween the Upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers, 
and live entirely by the chase. The Scioux gen- 
erally say they have three souls, and that after 
death, that which has done well goes to the warm 
country, that which has done evil to the cold 
regions, and the other guards the body. Poly- 
gamy is common among them. They are very 
jealous, and sometimes fight in duel for their 
wives. They manage the bow admirably, and 
have been seen several times to kill ducks on the 



BLUE EABTR ASSAYED BY L'HULLIER IN PABIS. 



43 



wing. They make their lodges of a number of 
buffalo skins interlaced and sewed, and carry 
them wherever they go. They are all great smo- 
kers, but their manner of smoking differs from 
that of other Indians. There are some Scioux 
who swallow all the smoke of the tobacco, and 
others who, after having kept it some time in 
their mouth, cause it to issue from the nose. " In 
each lodge there are usually two or three men 
with their families. 

On the third of October, they received at the 
fort several Scioux, among whom was Wahkan- 
tape, chief of the village. Soon two Canadians 
arrived who had been hunting, and who had been 
robbed by the Scioux of the East, who had raised 
their guns against the establishment which M. 
Le Sueur had made on Blue Earth river. 

On the fourteenth the fort was finished and 
named Fort LTIuillier. and on the twenty-second 
two Canadians were sent out to invite the Aya- 
vois and Otoctatas to come and establish a vil- 
lage near the fort, because these Indians are in- 
dustrious and accustomed to cultivate the earth, 
and they hoped to get provisions from them, and 
to make them work in the mines. 

On the twenty-fourth, six Scioux Oujalespoi- 
tons wished to go into the fort, but were told 
that they did not receive men who had killed 
Frenchmen. This is the term used when they 
have insulted them. The next day they came to 
the lodge of Le Sueur to beg him to have pity on 
them. They wished, according to custom, to 
weep over hi- head and make him a present of 
packs of beavers, which lie refused. He told 
them he was surprised that people who had rob- 
bed should come to him ; to which they replied 
that they had heard it said that two Frenchmen 
had been robbed, but none from their village had 
been present at that wicked action. 

Le Sueur answered, that he knew it was the 
Mendeoueantons and not the Oujalespoitons ; 
" but," continued he. '• you are Scioux: it is the 
Scioux who have robbed me. and if I were to fol- 
low your manner of acting I should break your 
heads ; for is it not true, that when a stranger 
(it is thus they call the Indians who are not 
Scioux) has insulted a Scioux, Mendeoucanton. 
Oujalespoitons, or others — all the villages revenge 
upon the first one they meet?" 

As they had nothing to answer to what he said 



to them, they wept and repeated, according to 
custom, " Ouaechissou ! ouaepanimanabo !" Le 
Sueur told them to cease crying, and added that 
the French had good hearts, and that they had 
come into the country to have pity on them. At 
the same time he made them a present, saying to 
them, " Carry back your beavers and say to all 
the Scioux. that they will have from me no more 
powder or lead, and they will no longer smoke 
any long pipe until they have made satisfaction 
for robbing the Frenchman. 

The same day the Canadians, who had been 
sent off on the 22d. arrived without having found 
the road which led to the Ayavois and Otoctatas. 
On the 25th, Le Sueur went to the river with 
three canoes, which he filled with green and blue 
earth. It is taken from the hills near which are 
very abundant mines of copper, some of which 
was worked at Paris in lGiiG. by L"Iiuillier. one 
of the chief collectors of the king. Stones were 
also found there which would be curious, if 
worked. 

On the ninth of November, eight Mantanton 
Scioux arrived, who had been sent by their chiefs 
to say that the Mendeoueantons were still at tlieir 
hik< on tin <n si of tin Mississippi, and they could 
not come for a long time ; and that tor a single 
village which had no good sense, the others ought 
not to bear the punishment ; and that they were 
willing to make reparation if they knew how. 
Le Sueur replied that he was glad that they had 
a disposition to do so. 

On the loth the two Mantanton Scioux, who 
had been sent expressly to say that all of the 
Scioux of the east, and part of those of the west, 
were joined together to come to the French, be- 
cause they had heard that the Christianaux and 
the Assinipoils were making war on them. 
These two nations dwell above the fort on the 
east side, more than eighty leagues on the Upper 
Mississippi. 

The Assinipoils speak Scioux, and are certainly 
of that nation. It is only a few years since that 
they became enemies. The enmity thus origi- 
nated: The Christianaux, having the use of arms 
before the Scioux, through the English at Hud- 
son's Bay, they constantly warred upon the As- 
sinipoils, who were their nearest neighbors. 
The latter, being weak, sued for peace, and to 
render it more lasting, married the Christianaux 



It 



XXPLOltEKS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



women. The other Soioux, who bad not made 
the compact, continued the war; and, seeing some 
Christianaux with the Assinipoils, broke their 
heads. The Christianaux furnished the Assini- 
poils with arms and merchandise. 

On the 16th the Scioux returned to their vil- 
lage, and it was reported that the Ayavois and 
Otoctatas were gone to establish themselves to- 
wards the Missouri River, near the Maha, who 
dwell in that region. On the 26th the Mantan- 
tons and Oujalespoitons arrived at the fort; and, 
after they had encamped in the woods. Wah 
kantape came to beg Le Sueur to go to his 
lodge. He there found sixteen men with women 
and children, with their faces daubed with black. 
In the middle of the lodge were several buffalo 
skins which were sewed for a carpet. After mo- 
tioning him to sit down, they wept for the fourth 
of an hour, and the chief gave him some wild 
rice to eat (as was their custom), putting the 
first three spoonsful to his mouth. After which, 
he said all present were relatives of Tioscate, 
whom Le Sueur took to Canada in 1695, and who 
died there in 1696. 

At the mention of Tioscate they began to weep 
again, and wipe their tears and heads upon the 
shoulders of Le Sueur. Then Wahkantape again 
spoke, and said that Tioscate begged him to for- 
get the insult done to the Frenchmen by the 
Mendeoucantons, and take pity on his brethren 
by giving them powder and balls whereby they 
could defend themselves, and gain a living for 
their wives and children, who languish in a coun- 
try full of game, because they had not the means 
of killing them. " Look," added the chief, " Be- 
hold thy children, thy brethren, and thy sisters; 
it is to thee to see whether thou wishest them to 
die. They will live if thou givest them powder 
and ball; they will die if thou refusest." 

Le Sueur granted them their request, but as 
the Scioux never answer on the spot, especially 
in matters of importance, and as he had to speak 
to them about his establishment he went out of 
the lodge without saying a word. The chief and 
all those within followed him as far as the door 
of the fort; and when he had gone in, they went 
around it three times, crying with all their 
strength, " Atheouanan! " that is to say, " Father, 
have pity on us." [Ate unyanpi, means Our 
Father.] 



The next day, he assembled in the fort the 
principal men of both villages; and as it is not 
possible to subdue the Scioux or to hinder them 
from going to war, unless it be by inducing them 
to cultivate the earth, he said to them that if 
they wished to render themselves worthy of the 
protection of the king, they must abandon their 
erring life, and form a village near his dwelling, 
where they would be shielded from the insults of 
of their enemies; and that they might be happy 
and not hungry, he would give them all the corn 
necessary to plant a large piece of ground; that 
the king, their and his chief, in sending him, had 
forbidden him to purchase beaver skins, knowing 
that this kind of hunting separates them and ex- 
poses them to their enemies; and that in conse- 
quence of this he had come to establish himself 
on Blue River and vicinity, where they had many 
times assured him were many kinds of beasts, 
for the skins of which he would give them all 
things necessary; that they ought to reflect that 
they could not do without French goods, and that 
the only way not to want them was, not to go to 
war with our allied nations. 

As it is customary with the Indians to accom- 
pany their word with a present proportioned to 
the affair treated of, he gave them fifty pounds of 
powder, as many balls, six guns, ten axes, twelve 
armsful of tobacco, and a hatchet pipe. 

On the first of December, the Mantantons in- 
vited Le Sueur to a great feast. Of four of their 
lodges they had made one, in which were one 
hundred men seated around, and every one his 
dish before him. After the meal, Wahkantape, 
the chief, made them all smoke, one after another, 
in the hatchet pipe which had been given them. 
He then made a present to Le Sueur of a slave 
and a sack of wild rice, and said to him, showing 
him his men: " Behold the remains of this great 
village, which thou hast aforetimes seen so nu- 
merous! All the others have been killed in war; 
and the few men whom thou seest in this lodge, 
accept the present thou hast made them, and are 
resolved to obey the great chief of all nations, of 
whom thou hast spoken to us. Thou oughtest 
not to regard us as Scioux, but as French, and in- 
stead of saying the Scioux are miserable, and have 
no mind, and are fit for 'nothing but to rob and 
steal from the French, thou shalt say my breth- 
ren are miserable and have no mind, and we must 



D' IBERVILLE'S MEMOIR ON THE MISSISSIPPI TRIBES. 



45 



try to procure some for them. They rob us, but 
I will take care that they do not lack iron, that is 
to say, all kinds of goods. If thou dost this. I as- 
sure thee that in a little time the Mantantons will 
become Frenchmen, and they will have ndne of 
those vices, with which thou reproachest us." 

Having finished his speech, he covered his face 
with his garment, and the others imitated him. 
They wept over their companions who had died 
in war, and chanted an adieu to their country in 
a tone so gloomy, that one could not keep from 
partaking of their sorrow. 

Wahkantape then made them smoke again, and 
distributed the presents, and said that he was go- 
ing to the Mendeoucantons, to inform them of the 
resolution, and invite them to do the same. 

On the twelfth, three Mendeoucauton chiefs, 
and a large number of Indians of the same vil- 
lage, arrived at the fort, and the next day gave 
satisfaction for robbing the Frenchmen. They 
brought four hundred pounds of beaver skins, and 
promised that the summer following, after their 
canoes were built and they had gathered their 
wild rice, that they would come and establish 
themselves near the French. The same day they 
returned to their village east of the Mississippi. 

NAMES OF THE BANDS OF SCIOUX OF THE 
EAST. WITH THEIR SIGNIFICATION. 

Mantantons-— That is to say. Village of the 
Great Lake which empties into a small one. 

Mendeouacantons— Village of Spirit Lake. 

Qtjiopetons— Village of the Lake with one 
River. 

Psiottmanitons— Village of AVild Rice Gath- 
erers. 

Ouadebatoxs— The River Village. 

Ouaetemaxetoxs— Village of the Tribe who 
dwell on the Point of the Lake. 

SONGASQUTTONS— The Brave Village, 

THE SCIOUX OF THE WEST. 

TorcHOUAEsixioxs— The Village of the Pole. 

Rsixchatoxs— Village of the Red AVild Rice. 

Oimalespoitons— Village divided into many 
small Bands. 

Pkixoutaxhixhixtoxs — The Great AVild 
Rice Village. 

TtntaNGAOUGHIATONS — The Grand Lodge 
Village. 



Otjaepetons— Village of the Leaf. 

Oughetgeodatons— Dung Village. 

Ouapeoxtetoxs — Village of those who shoot 
in the Large Pine. 

Hinhanetons — Village of the Red Stone 
Quarry. 

The above catalogue of villages concludes the 
extract that La Harpe has made from Le Sueur's 
journal. 

In the narrative of Major Long's second expe- 
dition, there are just as many villages of the Gens 
du Lac, or M'dewakantonwan Scioux mentioned, 
though the names are different. After leaving 
the Mille Lac region, the divisions evidently were 
different, and the villages known by new names. 

Charlevoix, who visited the valley of the Lower 
Mississippi in 1722. says that Le Sueur spent a 
winter in his fort on the banks of the Blue Earth, 
and that in the following April he went up to the 
mine, about a mile above. In twenty-two days 
they obtained more than thirty thousand pounds 
of the substance, four thousand of which were se- 
lected and sent to Fiance. 

On the tenth of February. 1702, Le Sueur came 
pack to the post on the Gulf of Mexico, and found 
D'Iberville absent, who, however, arrived on the 
eighteenth of the next month', with a ship from 
France, loaded with supplies. After a few weeks, 
the Governor of Louisiana sailed again for the 
old country, Le Sueur being a fellow passenger. 

On board of the ship. D'Iberville wrote a mem- 
orial upon the Mississippi valley, with sugges- 
tions for carrying on commerce therein, which 
contains many facts furnished by Le Sueur. A 
copy of the manuscript was in possession of the 
Historical Society of Minnesota, from which are 
the following extracts: 

" If the Sioux remain in their own country, 
they are useless to us, being too distant. We 
could have no commerce with them except that 
of the beaver. M. Lr Sueur, who goes to France 
to (/''■<■ on account of this country, is the proper per- 
son to make these movements. He estimates the 
Sioux at four thousand families, who could settle 
upon the Missouri. 

"He has spoken to me of another which he 
calls the Mahas, composed of more than twelve 
hundred families. The Ayooues (Ioways) and the 
Octoctatas, their neighbors, are about three 
hundred families. They occupy the lands be- 



40 



EXPLOItEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



tween the Mississippi and the Missouri, about 
one hundred leagues from the Illinois. These 
savages do not know the use of arms, and a de- 
scent might be made upon them in a river, which 
is beyond the Wabash on the west. * * * 

"The Assinibouel. Quenistinos, and people of 
the north, who are upon the rivers which fall into 
the Mississippi, and trade at Fort Kelson (Hud- 
son Bay"), are about four hundred. We could 
prevent them from going there if we wish." 

" In four or five years we can establish a com- 
merce with these savages of sixty or eighty thou- 
sand buffalo skins; more than one hundred deer 
skins, which will produce, delivered in France, 
more than two million four hundred thousand 
livres yearly. One might obtain for a buffalo 
skin four or five pounds of wool, which sells for 
twenty sous, two pounds of coarse hair at ten 
sous. 

"Besides, from smaller peltries, two hundred 
thousand livres can be made yearly." 

In the third volume of the " History and Sta- 
tistics of the Indian Tribes," prepared under the 
direction of the Commissioner of Indian affairs, 
by Mr. Schoolcraft, a manuscript, a copy of which 
was in possession of General Cass, is referred to as 
containing the first enumeration of the Indians of 
the Mississippi Valley. The following was made 
thirty-four years earlier by D 'Iberville: 

"The Sioux, Families, 4,000 

Mahas, , 12,000 

Octata and Ayoues, 300 

Canses [Kansas], 1,500 

Missouri, 1,500 

Akansas, &c, 200 

Manton [Mandan], 100 

Panis [Pawnee], 2,000 

Illinois, of the great village and Cama- 

roua [Tamaroa], 800 

Meosigamea [Metchigamias], .... 200 
Kikapous and Mascoutens, .... 450 

Miamis, . , 500 

Chactas, 4,000 

Chicachas, 2,000 

Mobiliens and Chohomes, 350 

Concaques [Conchas], 2,000 

Ouma [Houmas], 150 

Colapissa, • 250 

Bayogoula, 100 

People of the Fork, 200 



Counica, &c. [Tonicas], 300 

NMecheSj . 1,500 

Belochy, [Biloxi] Pascoboula, .... 100 



Total, 23,850 

•• The savage tribes located in the places I have 
marked out, make it necessary to establish three 
posts on the Mississippi, one at the Arkansas, 
another at the Wabash (Ohio), and the third at 
the Missouri. At each post it would be proper 
to have an officer with a detachment of ten sol- 
diers with a sergeant and corporal. All French- 
men should be allowed to settle there with their 
families, and trade with the Indians, and they 
might establish tanneries for properly dressing 
the buffalo and deer skins for transportation. 

" No Frenchman shall be allowed to follow the 
Indians on their hunts, as it tends to keep them 
hunters, as is seen in Canada, and when they are 
in the woods, they do not desire to become tillers 
of the soil. * * * * * * . * 

" I have said nothing in this memoir of which 
I have not personal knowledge or the most relia- 
ble sources. The most of what I propose is 
founded upon personal reflection in relation to 
what might be done for the defence and advance- 
ment of the" colony. ***** 
* * * It will be absolutely necessary 
that the king should define the limits of this 
country in relation to the government of Canada. 
It is important that the commandant of the 
Mississippi should have a report of those who 
inhabit the rivers that fall into the Mississippi, 
and principally those of the river Illinois. 

" The Canadians intimate to the savages that 
they ought not to listen to us but to the governor 
of Canada, who always speaks to them with large 
presents, that the governor of Mississippi is mean 
and never sends them any thing. This is true, 
and what I cannot do. It is imprudent to accus- 
tom the savages to be spoken to by presents, for, 
with so many, it wouhi cost the king more than 
the revenue derived from the trade. When they 
I come to us, it will be necessary to bring them in 
subjection, make them no presents, and compel 
them to do what we wish, as if they were French- 
men. 

" The Spaniards have divided the Indians into 

parties on this point, and we can do the same. 

1 When one nation does wrong, we can cease to 



PEXICAUT DESCRIBES LIFE AT FORT L'HUILLIEB. 



47 



trade with them, and threaten to draw down the 
hostility of other Indians. We rectify the diffi- 
culty by having missionaries, who will bring 
them into obedience secretly. 

" The Illinois and Mascoutens have detained 
the French canoes they find upon the Mississippi, 
saying that the governors of Canada have given 
them permission. I do not know whether this is 
so, but if true, it follows that we have not the 
liberty to send any one on the Mississippi. 

'•'M. Le Sueur would have been taken if he 
had not been the strongest. Only one of the 
canoes he sent to the Sioux was plundered." * * * 

Penicaufs account varies in some particulars 
from that of La Harpe's. He calls the Mahkahto 
Green River instead of Blue and writes: •• We 
took our route by its mouth and ascended it forty 
leagues, when we found another river falling in- 
to the Saint Pierre, which we entered. "We 
sailed this the Green River because it is of that 
color by reason of a green earth which loosening 
itself from from the copper mines, becomes dis- 
solved and makes it green, 

• A league up this river, we found a point 
of land a quarter of a league distant from the 
woods, and it was upon this point that M. Le 
Sueur resolved to build his fort, because we could 
not go any higher on account of the ice, it being 
the last day of September. Half of our people 
went hunting whilst the others worked on the 
fort. We killed four hundred buffaloes, which 
were our provisions for the winter, and which we 
placed upon scaffolds in our fort, after having 
skinned and cleaned and quartered them. We 
also made cabins in the fort, and a magazine to 
keep our goods. After having drawn up our 
shallop within the inclosureof the fort, we spent 
the winter in our cabins. 

■■ When we were working in our fort in the 
beginning seven French traders from Canada 
took refuge there. They had been pillaged and 
stripped naked by the Sioux, a wandering nation 
living only by hunting and plundering. Among 
these seven persons there was a Canadian gen- 
tleman of Le Sueur"sacquaintance, whom he rec- 
ognized at once, and gave him some clothes, as 
he did also to all the rest, and whatever else was 
necessary for them. They remained with us 
during the entire winter at our fort, where we 
had not food enough for all, except buffalo meat 



which we had not even salt to eat with. We had 
a good deal of trouble the first two weeks in ac- 
customing ourselves to it, having fever and di- 
arrhoea and becoming so tired of it as to hate the 
smell. But by degrees our bodies became adapt- 
ed to it so well that at the end of six weeks there 
was not one of us who could not eat sLx pounds 
of meat a day. and drink four bowls of broth. 
As soon as we were accustomed to this kind of 
living it made us very fat, and then there was no 
more sickness. 

" When spring arrived we went to work in the 
copper mine. This was the beginning of April of 
this year [1701.] We took with us twelve labor- 
ers and four hunters. This mine was situated 
about three-quarters of a league from our post. 
We took from the mine in twenty days more than 
twenty thousand pounds weight of ore, of which 
we only selected four thousand pounds of the 
finest, which M. Le Sueur, who was a very good 
judge of it, had carried to the fort, and which has 
since been sent to France, though I have uot 
learned the result. 

•• This mine is situated at the beginning of a 
very long mountain, which is upon the bank of 
the river, so that boats can go right to the mouth 
of the mine itself. At this place is the green 
earth, which is a foot and a half in thickness, 
and above it is a layer of earth as firm and 
hard as stone, and black and burnt like coal by 
the exhalation from the mine. The copper is 
scratched out with a knife. There are no trees 
upon this mountain. * * * After twenty-two 
days 1 work, we returned to our fort. When the 
Sioux, who belong to the nation of savages who 
pillaged the Canadians, came they brought us 
merchandize of furs. 

"They had more than four hundred beaver 
robes, each robe made of nine skins sewed to- 
gether. M. Le Sueur purchased these and many 
other skins which he bargained for, in the week 
he traded with the savages. * * * * 
AVe sell in return wares which come very dear to 
the buyers, especially tobacco from Brazil, in the 
proportion of a hundred crowns the pound; two 
little horn-handled knives, and four leaden bul- 
lets are equal to ten crowns in exchange for 
skins ; and so with the rest. 

••In the beginning of May, we launched our 
shallop in the water, and loaded it with green 



IS 



EXPLORERS AND EIOXEERS OF MXXESOTA. 



earth that had been taken out of the river, and 
with the furs we had traded for, of which we had 
three canoes full. M. Le Sueur before going 
held council with M. D'Evaque [or Eraque] the 
Canadian gentleman, and the three great chief s 
of the Sioux, three brothers, and told them that 
as he had to return to the sea. he desired them 
to live in peace with M. D'Evaque, whom he left 
in command at Fort L'Huillier, with twelve 
Frenchmen. M. Le Sueur made a considerable 
present to the three brothers, chiefs of the sava- 
ges, desiring them to never abandon the French. 
Afterward we the twelve men whom he had chosen 
to go down to the sea with him embarked. In set- 
ting out, M. Le Sueur promised to M. D'Evaque 
and the twelve Frenchmen who remained with 
him to guard the fort, to send up munitions of 
war from the Illinois country as soon as he should 
arrive there ; which he did, for on getting there 
he sent off to him a canoe loaded with two thou- 
sand pounds of lead and powder, with three of 
our people in charge." 

Le Sueur arrived at the French fort on the 
Gulf of Mexico in safety, and in a few weeks, in 
the spring of 1701, sailed for France, with his 
kinsman, D'Iberville, the first governor of Lou- 
isiana. 

In the spring of the next year (1702) D'Evaque 
came to Mobile and reported to D'Iberville, who 
had come back from France, that he had been 
attacked by the Foxes and Maskoutens, who killed 
three Frenchmen who were working near Fort 
L'Huillier, and that, being out of powder and 
lead, he had been obliged to conceal the goods 
which were left and abandon the post. At the 
Wisconsin Kiver he had met Juchereau, formerly 
criminal judge in Montreal, with thirty-five 
men, on his way to establish a tannery for buffalo 
skins at the Wabash, and that at the Illinois he 
met the canoe of supplies sent by Bienville. 
D'Iberville's brother. 

La Motte Cadillac, in command at Detroit, in 
a letter written on August 31st, 1703, alludes to 
Le Sueur's expedition in these words: "Last 
year they sent Mr. Boudor, a Montreal merchant, 
into the country of the Sioux to join Le Su- 
eur. He succeeded so well in that journey he 
transported thither twenty-five or thirty thous- 
and pounds of merchandize with which to trade 
in all the country of the Outawas. This proved 



to him an unfortunate investment, as he has 
been robbed of a part of the goods by the Outa- 
gamies. The occasion of the robbery by one of 
our own allies was as follows. 1 speak with a 
full knowledge of the facts as they occurred while 
I was at Michillimackianc. From time immemo- 
rial our allies have been at war with the Sioux, 
and on my arrival there in conformity to the or- 
der of M. Frontenac, the most able man who has 
ever come into Canada, I attempted to negotiate 
a truce between the Sioux and all our allies. 
Succeeding in this negotiation I took the occa- 
sion to turn their arms against the Iroquois with 
whom we were then at war, and soon after I ef- 
fected a treaty of peace between the Sioux and 
the French and their allies which lasted two years. 

"At the end of tha; time the Sioux came, in 
great numbers, to the villages of the Miamis, un- 
der pretense of ratifying the treaty. They were 
well received by the Miamis, and, after spending 
several days in their villages, departed, apparent- 
ly perfectly satisfied with their good reception, as 
they certainly had every reason to be. 

" The Miamis, believing them already far dis- 
tant, slept quietly; but the Sioux, who had pre- 
meditated the attack, returned the same night to 
the principal village of the Miamis, where most 
of the tribe were congregated, and, taking them 
by surprise, slaughtered nearly three thousand(?) 
and put the rest to flight.. 

"This perfectly infuriated all tne nations. 
They came with their complaints, begging me to 
join with them and exterminate the Sioux. But 
the war we then had on our hands did not permit 
it, so it became necessary to play the orator in a 
long harangue. In conclusion I advised them to 
•' weep their dead, and wrap them up, and leave 
them to sleep coldly till the day of vengeance 
should come;' telling them we must sweep the 
land on this side of the Iroquois, as it was neces- 
sary to extinguish even their memory, after which 
the allied tribes could more easily avenge the 
atrocious deed that the Sioux had just committed 
upon them. In short, I managed them so well 
that the affair was settled in the manner that I 
proposed. 

" But the twenty-five permits still existed, and 
the cupidity of the French induced them to go 
among the Sioux to trade for beaver. Our allies 
complained bitterly of this, saying it was injust- 



TRADE FORBIDDEN WITH THE SIOUX. 



49 



ice to them, as they had taken up arms in our 
quarrel against the Iroquois, while the French 
traders were carrying munitions of war to the 
Sioux to enable them to kill the rest of our allies 
as they had the Miamis. 

" I immediately informed M. Frontenae. and M. 
Champigny having read the communication, and 
commanded that an ordinance be publ ished at Mon- 
treal forbidding the traders to go into the country 
of the Sioux for the purpose of traffic under penalty 
of a thousand francs fine, the confiscation of the 
goods, and other arbitrary penalties. The ordi- 
nance was sent to me and faithfully executed. 
The same year [1699] I descended to Quebec, 
having asked to be relieved. Since that time, in 
spite of this prohibition, the French have con- 
tinued to trade with the Sioux, but not without 
being subject to affronts and indignities from our 
allies themselves which bring dishonor on the 
French name. * * * I do not consider it best 
any longer to allow the traders to carry on com- 
merce with the Sioux, under any pretext what- 



ever, especially as M. Boudor has just been 
robbed by the Fox nation, and M. Jucheraux has 
given a thousand crowns, in goods, for the right 
of passage through the country of the allies to 
his habitation. 

'• The allies say that Le Sueur has gone to the 
Sioux on the Mississippi; that they are resolved 
to oppose him, and if he offers any resistance they 
will not be answerable for the consequences. 
It would be well, therefore, to give Le Sueur 
warning by the Governor of Mississippi. 

••The Sauteurs [Chippeways] being friendly 
with the Sioux wished to give passage through 
their country to M. Boudor and others, permit- 
ting them to carry arms and other munitions of 
war to this nation; but the other nations being 
opposed to it, differences have arisen between 
them which have resulted in the robbery of M. 
Boudor. This has given occasion to the Sau- 
teurs to make an outbreak upon the Sacs and 
Foxes, killing thirty or forty of them. So there 
is war among the people." 



10 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF .MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EVENTS "WHICH LED TO BUILDING FORT BEAUHARNOIS ON LAKE PEPIN. 



Re-Establishment of Mackinaw.— Sieur de Louvigny at Mackinaw.— De Lignery 
at Mackinaw.— Louvigny Attacks ihe Foxes.— Da Luth's Post Rooccupied. — 
Saint Pierre at La Poiute mi Lake Superior.— Preparations for ft Jesuit Mission 
annnq the Sioux.— La Perriere Boucher's Expedition to Lake Pepin.— De 
Gonor and Guiguas, Jesuit Missionaries.— Visit to Foxes and Winnebagoes.— 
Wisconsin River Described.— Fort Beauharnois Built.— Fireworks Displayed.— 
High Water at Lake Pepin. — De Gonor Visits Mackinaw.— Boucherville, Mont- 
brun ami Gnrjuas Captured by Indians.— Montbrun's Escape.— Boucherville's 
Presents to Indians.— Exaggerated Account of Father Guiguas' Capture.— Dis- 
patches ConceruiriL' Fort Beauharnnis.— Sieur de la Jemeraye. — Saint Pierre at 
Fort Beauharnois —Trouble between Sioux and Foxes —Sioux Visit Quebec— 
De Lusignan Visits the Sioux Country.— Saint Pierre Noticed in the Travels 
of Jonathan Carver and Lieutenant Pike. 



After the Fox Indians drove away Le Sueur's 
men, in 1702, from the Makahto, or Blue Earth 
river, the merchants of Montreal and Quebec did 
not encourage trade with the tribes beyond Mack- 
inaw. 

D'Aigreult, a French officer, sent to inspect 
that post, in the summer of 1708, reported that 
he arrived there, on the 19th of August, and 
found there but fourteen or fifteen Frenchmen. 
He also wrote: " Since there are now only a few 
wanderers at Michilimackinack, the greater part 
of the furs of the savages of the north goes to the 
English trading posts on Hudson's Bay. The 
Outawas are unable to make this trade by them- 
selves, because the northern savages are timid, 
and will not come near them, as they have often 
been plundered. It is, therefore, necessary that 
the French be allowed to seek these northern 
tribes at the mouth of their own river, which 
empties into Lake Superior." 

Louis de la Porte, the Sieur De Louvigny, in 
1690, accompanied by Nicholas Perrot, with a de- 
tachment of one hundred and seventy Canadians 
and Indians, came to Mackinaw, and until 1694 
was in command, when he was recalled. 

In 1712, Father Joseph J. Marest the Jesuit 
missionary wrote, " If this country ever needs 
M. Louvigny it is now ; the savages say it is ab- 
solutely necessary that he should come for the 
safety of the country, to unite the tribes and to 
defend those whom the war has caused to return 
to Michilimacinac. ***** 



I do not know what course the Pottawatomies 
will take, nor even what course they will pursue 
who are here, if M. Louvigny does not come, es- 
pecially if the Foxes were to attack them or us." 
The next July, M. Lignery urged upon the au- 
thorities the establishment of a garrison of trained 
soldiers at Mackinaw, and the Intendant of Can- 
ada wrote to the King of France : 

" Michilimackinac might be re-established, 
without expense to his Majesty, either by sur- 
rendering the trade of the post to such individu- 
als as will obligate themselves to pay all the ex- 
penses of twenty-two soldiers and two officers; to 
furnish munitions of war for the defense of the 
fort, and to make presents to the savages. 

" Or the expenses of the post might be paid by 
the sale of permits, if the King should not think 
proper to grant an exclusive commerce. It is ab- 
solutely necessary to know the wishes of the King 
concerning these two propositions ; and as M. 
Lignery is at Michilimackinac, it will not be any 
greater injury to the colony to defer the re-estab- 
ment of this post, than it has been for eight or 
ten years past." 

The war with England ensued, and in April, 
1713, the treaty of Utrecht was ratified. France 
had now more leisure to attend to the Indian 
tribes of the "West. 

Early in 1714, Mackinaw was re-occupied, and 
on the fourteenth of March, 1716, an expedition 
under Lieutenant Louvigny, left Quebec. His 
arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long ex- 
pected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and 
friendly Indians, and with a force of eight hun- 
dred men, he proceeded against the Foxes in 
Wisconsin. He brought with him two pieces of 
cannon and a grenade mortar, and besieged the 
fort of the Foxes, which he stated contained five 
hundred warriors, and three thousand men, a 
declaration which can scarcely be credited. After 



DES1BE FOB A N0B1HEBN BOUTE 10 THE PACIFIC. 



51 



three days of skirmishing, he prepared to mine 
the fort, when the Foxes capitulated. 

The paddles of the birch bark canoes and the 
gay songs of the voyageurs now began to be heard 
once more on the waters of Lake Superior and its 
tributaries. In 1717, the post erected by Du 
Luth, on Lake Superior near the northern boun- 
dary of Minnesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Ro- 
bertel de la Noue. 

In view of the troubles among the tribes of the 
northwest, in the month of September, 1718, Cap- 
tain St. Pierre, who had great influence with the 
Indians of "Wisconsin and Minnesota, was sent 
with Ensign Linctot and some soldiers to re-oc- 
cupy La Pointe on Lake Superior, now Bayfield, 
in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. The 
chiefs of the band there, and at Keweenaw, 
had threatened war against the Foxes, who had 
killed some of their number. 

When the Jesuit Charlevoix returned to France 
after an examination of the resources of Canada 
and Louisiana, he urged that an attempt should 
be made to reach the Pacific Ocean by an inland 
route, and suggested that an expedition should 
proceed from the mouth of the Missouri and fol- 
low that stream, or that a post should be estab- 
lished among the Sioux which should be the point 
of departure. The latter was accepted, and in 
1722 an allowance was made by the French Gov- 
ernment, of twelve hundred livres, for two Jes- 
uit missionaries to accompany those who should 
establish the new post. D'Avagouf, Superin- 
tendent of Missions, in May, 1723, requested the 
authorities to grant a separate canoe for the con- 
veyance of the goods of the proposed mission, 
and as it was necessary to send a commandant 
to persuade the Indians to receive the mission- 
aries, he recommended SieurPachot, an officer of 
experience. 

A dispatch from Canada to the French govern- 
ment, dated October 14, 1723, announced that 
Father de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesuits, ex- 
pected that, the next spring, Father Guymoneau, 
and another missionary from Paris, would go to 
the Sioux, but that they had been hindered by the 
Sioux a few months before killing seven French- 
men, on their May to Louisiana. The aged 
Jesuit, Joseph J. Marest, who had been on Lake 
Pepin in 1689 with Perrot, and was now in Mon- 
treal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who 



had killed the French, but he thought the sta- 
tionary Sioux would receive Christian instruction. 

The hostility of the Foxes had also prevented 
the establishment of a fort and mission among the 
Sioux. 

On the seventh of June, 1726, peace was con- 
cluded by De Lignery with the Sauks, Foxes, and 
Winnebagoes at Green Bay; and Linctot, who 
had succeeded Saint Pierre in command at La 
Pointe, was ordered, by presents and the promise 
of a missionary, to endeavor to detach the Dah- 
kotahs from their alliance with the Foxes. At 
this time Linctot made arrangements for peace 
between the Ojibways and Dahkotas, and sent 
two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the 
latter, with a promise that, if they ceased to fight 
the Ojibways, they should have regular trade, 
and a "black robe" reside in their country. 

Traders and missionaries now began to prepare 
for visiting the Sioux, and in the spring of 1727 
the Governor of Canada wrote that the fathers, 
appointed for the Sioux mission, desired a case of 
mathematical instruments, a universal astro- 
nomic dial, a spirit level, chain and stakes, and a 
telescope of six or seven feet tube. 

On the sixteenth of June, 1727, the expedition 
for the Sioux country left Montreal in charge of 
the Sieur de la Perriere who was son of the dis- 
tinguished and respected Canadian, Pierre Bou- 
cher, the Governor of Three Elvers. 

La Perriere had served in Newfoundland and 
been associated with Ilertel de Rouville in raids i 
into New England, and gamed an unenviable no- 
toriety as the leader of the savages, while Rou- 
ville led the French in attacks upon towns like 
Haverhill. Massachusetts, where the Indians ex- 
ultingly killed the Puritan pastor, scalped his 
loving wife, and dashed out his infant's brains 
against a rock. He was accompanied by his 
brother and other relatives. Two Jesuit fathers, 
De Gonor and Pierre Michel Guignas, were also 
of the party. 

In Shea's " Early French Voyages" there was 
printed, for the first time, a letter from Father 
Guignas, from the Brevoort manuscripts, written 
on May 29, 1728, at Fort Beauharnois, on Lake 
Pepin, which contains facts of much interest. 

He writes: " The Scioux convoy left the end 
of Montreal Island on the 16th of the month of 
June last year, at 11 A. M., and reached Michili- 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



mackinac the 22d of the month of July. This 
post is two hundred and fifty-one leagues from 
Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 46 min- 
utes north latitude. 

" We spent the rest of the month at this post, 
in the hope of receiving from day to day some 
news from Montreal, and in the design of 
strengthening ourselves against the alleged ex- 
treme difficulties of getting a free passage through 
the Foxes. At last, seeing nothing, we set out 
on our march, the first of the month of August, 
and. after seventy-three leagues quite pleasant 
sail along the northerly side of Lake Michigan, 
running to the southeast, we reached the Bay 
[Green] on the 8th of the same month, at 5:30 p. 
M. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north 
latitude. 

" We stopped there two days, and on the 11th 
in the morning, we embarked, in a very great 
impatience to reach the Foxes. On the third day 
after our departure from the bay, quite late in 
the afternoon, in fact somewhat in the night, the 
chiefs of the Puans [Winnebagoes] came out three 
leagues from their village to meet the French, 
with their peace calumets and some bear meat as 
a refreshment, and the next day we were received 
by that small nation, amid several discharges of 
a few guns, and with great demonstrations. 

" They asked us with so good a grace to do 
them the honor to stay some time with them that 
we granted them the rest of the day from noon, 
and the following day. There may be in all the 
village, sixty to eighty men, but all the men and 
women of very tall stature, and well made. They 
are on the bank of a very pretty little lake, in a 
most agreeable spot for its situation and the 
goodness of the soil, nineteen leagues from the 
bay and eight leagues from the Foxes. 

" Early the next morning, the 15th of the month 
of August, the convoy preferred to continue its 
route, with quite pleasant weather, but a storm 
coming on in the afternoon, we arrived quite wet, 
still in the rain, at the cabins of the Foxes, a nation 
so much dreaded, and really so little to be dreaded. 
From all that we could see, it is composed of 
two hundred men at most, but there is a perfect 
hive of children, especially boys from ten to 
fourteen years old, well formed. 

'• They are cabined on a little eminence on the 
bank of a small river that bears their name, ex- 



tremely tortuous or winding, so that you are con- 
stantly boxing the compass. Yet it is apparently 
quite wide, with a chain of hills on both sides, 
but there is only one miserable little channel 
amid this extent of apparent bed, which is a kind 
of marsh full of rushes and wild rice of almost 
impenetrable thickness. They have nothing but 
mere bark cabins, without any kind of palisade or 
other fortification. As soon as the French ca- 
noes touched their shore they ran down with 
their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain, 
and all smoked. 

" We stayed among them the rest of this day, 
and all the next, to know what were their designs 
and ideas as to the French post among the Sioux. 
The Sieur Eeaume, interpreter of Indian lan- 
guages at the Bay, acted efficiently there, and 
with devotion to the King's service. Even if my 
testimony, Sir, should be deemed not impartial, I 
must have the honor to tell you that Bev. Father 
Chardon, an old missionary, was of very great as- 
sistance there, and the presence of three mission- 
aries reassured these cut-throats and assassins of 
the French more than all the speeches of the best 
orators could have done. 

" A general council was convened in one of the 
cabins, they were addressed in decided friendly 
terms, and they replied in the same way. A 
small present was made to them. On their side 
they gave some quite handsome dishes, lined with 
dry meat. 

On the following Sunday, 17th of the month 
of August, very early in the morning, Father 
Chardon set out, with Sieur Eeaume, to return 
to the Bay, and the Sioux expedition, greatly re- 
joiced to have so easily got over this difficulty, 
which had everywhere been represented as so in- 
surmountable, got under way to endeavor to 
reach its journey's end. 

"Never was navigation more tedious than 
what we subsequently made from uncertainty as 
to our course. No one knew it, and we got 
astray every moment on water and on land for 
want of a guide and pilots. We kept on, as it 
were feeling our way for eight days, for it was 
only on the ninth, about three o'clock p. m., that 
we arrived, by accident, believing ourselves still 
far off, at the portage of the Ouisconsin, which is 
forty-five leagues from the Foxes, counting all 
the twists and turns of this abominable river. 



SITUATION AND DESCRIPTION OF FORT BEAUHARNOIS. 



This portage is half a league in length, and half 
of that is a kind of marsh full of mud, 

" The Ouisconsin is quite a handsome river, 
but far below what we had been told, apparently, 
as those who gave the description of it in Canada 
saw it only in the high waters of spring. It is a 
shallow river on a bed of quicksand, which forms 
bars almost everywhere, and these often change 
place. Its shores are either steep, bare mountains 
or low points with sandy base. Its course is from 
northeast to southwest. From the portage to its 
mouth in the Mississippi, I estimated thirty-eight 
leagues. The portage is at 43 deg. 24 min. north 
latitude. 

" The Mississippi from the mouth of the Ouis- 
consin ascending, goes northwest. This beauti- 
ful river extends between two chains of high, 
bare and very sterile moimtains, constantly a 
league, three-quarters of a league, or where it is 
narrowest, half a league apart. Its centre is oc- 
cupied by a chain of well wooded islands, so that 
regarding from the heights above, you would 
think you saw an endless valley watered on the 
right and left by two large rivers ; sometimes, too, 
you could discern no river. These islands are 
overflowed every year, and would be adapted to 
raising rice. Fifty-eight leagues from the mouth 
of the Ouisconsin, according to my calculation, 
ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which 
is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of 
islands at that point, where it may be half a 
league wide. This river, in what I traversed of 
it, is shallow, and has shoals in several places, be- 
cause its bed is moving sands, like that of the 
Ouisconsin. 

"On the 17th of September. 1727, at noon, we 
reached this lake, which had been chosen as the 
bourne of our voyage. "We planted ourselves on 
the shore about the middle of the north side, on 
a low point, where the soil is excellent. The 
wood is very dense there, but is already thinned 
in consequence of the rigor and length of the 
winter, which has been severe for the climate, 
for we are here on the parallel of 43 deg. 41 min. 
It is true that the difference of the winter is 
great compared to that of Quebec and Montreal, 
for all that some poor judges say. 

" From the day after our landing we put our 
axes to the wood: on the fourth day following 
the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat 



of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve 
feet long, with two good bastions. For so small 
a space there are large buildings quite distinct and 
not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight, 
and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide. 

" All would go well there if the spot w r ere not 
inundated, but this year [1728], on the loth of 
the month of April, we were obliged to camp out, 
and the water ascended to the height of two feet 
and eight inches in the houses, and it is idle to 
say that it was the quantity of snow that fell 
this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted 
long before, and there was only a foot and a half 
from the 8th of February to the loth of March; 
you could not use snow-shoes. 

■• I have great reason to think that this spot is 
inundated more or less every year; I have always 
thonght so, but they were not obliged to believe 
me, as old people who said that they had lived in 
this region fifteen or twenty years declared that 
it was never overflowed. We could not enter 
our much-devastated houses until the 30th of 
April, and the disorder is even now scarcely re- 
paired. 

" Before the end of October [1 727] all the houses 
were finished and furnished, and each one found 
himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then 
thought only of going out to explore the hills and 
rivers and to see those herds of all kinds of deer 
of which they tell such stories in Canada. They 
must have retired, or diminished greatly, since 
the time the old voyayeurs left the country; they 
are no longer in such great numbers, and are 
killed with difficulty. 

'■ After beating the field, for some time, all re- 
assembled at the fort, and thought of enjoying a 
little the fruit of their labors. On the 4th of No- 
vember we did not forget it was the General's 
birthday. Mass was said for him [Beauharnois, 
Governor-General of Canada] in the morning, 
and they were well disposed to celebrate the day 
in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyro- 
technists and the inconstancy of the weather 
caused them to postpone the celebration to the 
14th of the same month, when they set off some 
very fine rockets and made the air ring with an 
hundred shouts of Vive le Roy! and Vive Charles 
de Beauharnois! It was on this occasion that the 
wine of the Sioux was broached; it was par ex- 



o\ 



EXI'LOUEKS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



cclknce. although there axe no wines here finer 
than in Canada. 

-What contributed much to the amusement, 
was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who 
were at the time around the fort. When these 
poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the 
stars fall from heaven, the women and children 
began to take flight, and the most courageous of 
the men to cry mercy, and implore us very earn- 
estly to stop the surprising play of that wonder- 
ful medicine. 

" As soon as we arrived among them, they as- 
sembled, in a few days, around the Trench fort to 
the number of ninety-five cabins, which might 
make in all one hundred and fifty men; for there 
are at most two men in their portable cabins of 
dressed skins, and in many there is only one. 
This is all we have seen except a band of about 
sixty men, who came on the 26th of the month of 
February, who were of those nations called Sioux 
of the Prairies. 

i "At the end of November, the Indians set out 
for their winter quarters. They do not, indeed, 
go far, and we saw some of them all through the 
winter; but from the second of the month of 
April last, when some cabins repassed here to go 
in search of them, [he] sought them in vain, du- 
ring a week, for more than sixty leagues of the 
Mississippi. He [La Perriere?] arrived yesterday 
without any tidings of them, 
i " Although I said above, that the Sioux were 
alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new 
phenomena, it must not be supposed from that 
they were less intelligent than other Indians we 
know. They seem to me more so ; at least they 
are much gayer and open, apparently, and far 
more dextrous thieves, great dancers, and great 
medicine men. The men are almost all large and 
well made, but the women are very ugly and dis- 
gusting, which does not, however, check debauch- 
ery among them, and is perhaps an effect of it." 

In the summer of 1728 the Jesuit- De Gonor 
left the fort on Lake Pepin, and, by way of Mack- 
inaw, returned to Canada. The Poxes had now 
become very troublesome, and De Lignery and 
Beaujeu marched against their stronghold, to find 
they had retreated to the Mississippi Kiver. 

On the 12th of October, Boucherville, his bro- 
ther Montbrun, a young cadet of enterprising 
spirit, the Jesuit Guignas, and other Prenchmen, 



eleven in all, left Fort Pepin to go to Canada, by 
way of the Illinois River. They were captured 
by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, and detained 
at the river " Au Bceuf ," which stream was prob- 
ably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twenty- 
two leagues above the Illinois Eiver, although the 
same name was given by Hennepin to the Chip- 
pewa River, just below Lake Pepin. They were 
held as prisoners, with the view of delivering 
them to the Poxes. The night before the deliv- 
ery the Sieur Montbrun and his brother and an- 
other Frenchman escaped. Montbrun, leaving 
his sick brother in the Illinois country, journeyed 
to Canada and informed the authorities. 

Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners 
for several months, and the former did not reach 
Detroit until June, 1729, The account of expen- 
ditures made during his captivity is interesting as 
showing the value of merchandize at that time. 
It reads as follows: 

" Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de 
Boucherville was obliged to furnish in the ser- 
vice of the King, from the time of his detention 
among the Kickapoos, on the 12th of October, 
1728, until his return to Detroit, in the year 1729, 
in the month of June. On arriving at the Kick- 
apoo village, he made a present to the young men 
to secure their opposition to some evil minded 
old warriors — 
Two barrels of powder, each fifty pounds 

at Montreal price, valued at the sum of 150 liv. 
One hundred pounds of lead and balls 

making the sum of 50 liv. 

Four pounds of vermillion, at 12 francs 

the pound * 48 fr. 

Four coats, braided, at twenty francs. . . 80 fr. 
Six dozen knives at four francs the dozen 24 fr. 
Four hundred flints, one hundred gun- 
worms, two hundred ramrods and one 
hundred and fifty files, the total at the 

maker's prices 90 liv. 

After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to 
the Renards [Foxes] they wished some favors, and 
I was obliged to give them the following which 
would allow them to weep over and cover their 
dead: 

Two braided coats @ 20 fr. each 40fr. 

Two woolen blankets @ 15 fr 30 

One hundred pounds of powder @ 30 sons 75 
One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous . . 25 



BOUCHER VILLE'S PRESENTS WHILE IN CAPTIVITY. 



55 



Two pounds of vermillion @ 12 fr 24fr. 

Moreover, given to the Kenards to cover 
their dead and prepare them for peace, 

fifty pounds of powder, making 75 

One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous. 50 

Two pounds of vermillion @ 12 fr 21 

During the winter a considerable party was 
sent to strike hands with the Illinois. Given at 
that time : 

Two blue blankets @ 15 fr 30 

Four men's shirts @ 6 fr 24 

Four pairs of long-necked bottles @ 6 f r 24 

Four dozen of knives @ 4 fr 16 

Gun-worms, files, ramrods, and flints, es- 
timated 40 

Given to engage the Kickapoos to establish 
themselves upon a neighboring isle, to protect 
from the treachery of the Kenards— 

Four blankets, @ 15f 60f 

Two pairs of bottles. 6f 24 

Two pounds of vermillion, 12f 24 

Four dozen butcher knives, 6f 24 

Two woolen blankets, (a 15f 30 

Four pairs of bottles, @ 6f 24 

Four shirts, @ 6f 24 

Four dozen of knives, (w 4f 16 

The Kenards having betrayed and killed their 
brothers, the Kickapoos. 1 seized the favorable 
opportunity, and to encourage the latter to avenge 
themselves, I gave — 
Twenty-live pounds of powder, @ 30sous 37f.l0s. 

Twenty-five pounds of lead. (3 10s I2f.l0s. 

Two guns at 30 livres each 60f 

One half pound of vermillion 6f 

Flints, guns, worms and knives 20f 

The Illinois coming to the Kikapoos vil- 
lage. I supported them at my expense, 
and gave them powder, balls and shirts 

valued at oOf 

In departing from the Kikapoos village, I 
gave them the rest of the goods for 

their good treatment, estimated at 80f 

In a letter, written by a priest, at New Orleans, 
on July 12, 1730, is the following exaggerated ac- 
count of the capture of Father Guignas: "We 
always felt a distrust of the Fox Indians, although 
they did not longer dare to undertake anything, 
since Father Guignas has detached from their al- 
liance the tribes of the Kikapous and Maskoutins. 
You know, my Reverend Father, that, being in 



Canada, he had the courage to penetrate even to 
the Sioux near the sources of the Mississippi, at 
the distance of eight hundred leagues from New 
Orleans and five hundred from Quebec. Obliged 
to abandon this important mission by the unfor- 
tunate result of the enterprise against the Foxes, 
he descended the river to repair to the Illinois. 
On the 15th of October in the year 1728 he was 
arrested when half way by the Kickapous and 
Maskoutins. For four months he was a captive 
among the Indians, where he had much to suffer 
and everything to fear. The time at last came 
when he was to be burned alive, when he was 
adopted by an old man whose family saved his 
life and procured his liberty. 

•• Our missionaries who are among the Illinois 
were no sooner acquainted with the situation 
than they procured him all the alleviation they 
were able. Everything which he received he em- 
ployed to conciliate the Indians, and succeeded 
to the extent of engaging them to conduct him to 
the Illinois to make peace with the French and 
Indians of this region. Seven or eight months 
alter this peace was concluded, the Maskoutins 
and Kikapous returned again to the Illinois coun- 
try, and took back Father Guignas to spend the 
winter, from whence, in all probability, he will 
return to Canada." 

In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729, 
by the Canadian government, the following refer- 
ence is made to Fort Beauharnois : •• They agree 
that the fort built among the Scioux, on the bor- 
der of Lake Fepin, appears to be badly situated 
on account of the freshets, but the Indians assure 
that the waters rose higher in 1728 than it ever 
did before. When Sieur de Laperriere located it 
at that place it was on the assurance of the In- 
dians that the waters did not rise so high." In 
reference to the absence of Indians, is the fol- 
lowing: 

•■It is very true that these Indians did leave 
shortly after on a hunting excursion, as they are 
in the habit of doing, for their own support and 
that of then families, who have only that means 
of livelihood, as they do not cultivate the soil at 
all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed 
that their absence was occasioned only by having 
fallen in while hunting with a number of prairie 
Scioux. by whom they were invited to occompany 
them on a war expedition against the Mahas, 



56 



EXPlOBESS AND PI0NEJEB8 OF MINNESOTA. 



which invitation they accepted, and returned 
only in the month of July following. 

" The interests of religion, of the service, and 
of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of 
this establishment, which has been the more nec- 
essary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when 
routed, would have found an asylum among the 
Scioux had not the French been settled there, 
and the docility and submission manifested by 
the Foxes can not be attributed to any cause ex- 
cept the attention entertained by the Scioux for 
the French, and the offers which the former 
made the latter, of which the Foxes were fully 
cognisant. 

" It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these 
favorable dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes 
in check and counteract the measures they might 
adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invaria- 
bly reject their propositions so long as the French 
remain in the country, and their trading post 
shall continue there. But, despite all these ad- 
vantages and the importance of preserving that 
establishment, M. de Beauharnois cannot take 
any steps until he has news of the French who 
asked his permission this summer to go up there 
with a canoe load of goods, and until assured that 
those who wintered there have not dismantled 
the fort, and that the Scioux continue in the same 
sentiments. Besides, it does not seem very easy, 
in the present conjuncture, to maintain that post 
unless there is a solid peace with the Foxes; on 
the other hand, the greatest portion of the tra- 
ders, who applied in 1727 for the establishment 
of that post, have withdrawn, and will not send 
thither any more, as the rupture with the Foxes, 
through whose country it is necessary to pass in 
order to reach the Scioux in canoe, has led them 
to abandon the idea. But the one and the other 
case might be remedied. The Foxes will, in all 
probability, come or send next year to sue for 
peace; therefore, if it be granted to them on ad- 
vantageous conditions, there need be no appre- 
hension when going to the Sioux, and another 
company could be formed, less numerous than 
the first, through whom, or some responsible mer- 
chants able to afford the outfit, a new treaty 
could be made, whereby these difficulties would 
be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and 
that is, to send a commanding and sub-offiGer, 
and some soldiers, up there, which are absolutely 



necessary for the maintenance of good order at 
that post; the missionaries would not go there 
without a commandant. This article, which re- 
gards the service, and the expense of which must 
be on his majesty's account, obliges them to ap- 
ply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their 
power, induce the traders to meet that expense, 
which will possibly amount to 1000 livres or 
1500 livres a year for the commandant, and in 
proportion for the officer under him; but, as in 
the beginning of an establishment the expenses 
exceed the profits, it is improbable that any com- 
pany of merchants will assume the outlay, and 
in this case they demand orders on this point, as 
well as his majesty's opinion as to the necessity 
of preserving so useful a post, and a nation which 
has already afforded proofs of its fidelity and at- 
tachment. " 

" These orders could be sent them by the way 
of He Boyale, or by the first merchantmen that 
will sail for Quebec. The time required to re- 
ceive intelligence of the occurrences in the Scioux 
country, will admit of their waiting for these 
orders before doing anything." 

Sieur de la Jemeraye, a relative of Sieur de la 
Perriere Boucher, with a few French, during the 
troubles remained in the Sioux country. After 
peace was established with the Foxes, Legardeur 
Saint Pierre was in command at Fort Beauhar- 
nois, and Father Guignas again attempted to es- 
tablish a Sioux mission. In a communication 
dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian au- 
thorities is the following: "In regard to the 
Scioux, Saint Pierre, who commanded at that 
post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have 
written to Sieur de Beauharnois on the tenth and 
eleventh of last April, that these Indians ap- 
peared well intentioned toward the French, and 
had no other fear than that of being abandoned 
by them. Sieur de Beauharnois annexes an ex- 
tract of these letters, and although the Scioux 
seem very friendly , the result only can tell whether 
this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon, 
for the unrestrained and inconsistent spirit which 
composes the Indian character may easily change 
it. They have not come over this summer as yet, 
but M. de la St. Pierre is to get them to do so 
next year, and to have an eye on their proceed- 
ings." 

The reply to this communication from Louis 



BE LUSIGNAN VISITS THE SIOUX COUNTRY. 



XV. dated Versailles, May 10th, 1737, was in 
these words : " As respects the Scioux, according 
to what the commandant and missionary at that 
post have written to Sieur de Beauharnois rela- 
tive to the disposition of these Indians, nothing 
appears to be wanting on that point. 

•• But their delay in coming down to Montreal 
since the time they have promised to do so, must 
render their sentiments somewhat suspected, and 
nothing but facts can determine whether their 
fidelity can be absolutely relied on. But what 
must still further increase the uneasiness to be 
entertained in their regard is the attack on the 
convoy of M. de Verandrie. especially if this officer 
has adopted the course he had informed the 
Marquis de Beauharnois he should take to have 
revenge therefor." 

The particulars of the attack alluded to will be 
found in the next chapter. Soon after this the 
Foxes again became troublesome, and the. post on 
Lake Pepin was for a time abandoned by the 
French. A dispatch in 1741 uses this language : 
" The Marquis de Beauharnois 1 opinion respect- 
ing the war against the Foxes, lias been the move 
readily approved by the Baron de Longeuil, 
Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Come, de Ldg- 
nery. LaXoue, and Duplessis-Fabert. whom he 
had assembled at his house, as it appears from 
all the letters that the Count has written for sev- 
eral years, that he has nothing so much at heart as 
the destruction of that Indian nation, which can 
not be prevailed on by the presents and the good 
treatment of the French, to live in peace, not- 
withstanding all its promises. 

" Besides, it is notorious that the Foxes have a 
secret understanding with the Iroquois, to secure 
a retreat among the latter, in case they be obliged 
to abandon their villages. They have one already 
secured among the Sioux of the prairies, with 
whom they are allied ; so that, should they be 



advised beforehand of the design of the French 
to wage war against them, it would be easy for 
them to retire to the one or the other before their 
passage could be intersected or themselves at- 
tacked in their villages.'" 

In the summer of 17-13, a deputation of the 
Sioux came down to Quebec, to ask that trade 
might be resumed. Three years after this, four 
Sioux chiefs came to Quebec, and asked that a 
commandant might be sent to Fort Beauharnois ; 
which was not granted. 

During the winter of 1715-6, De Lusignan vis- 
ited the Sioux country, ordered by the govern- 
ment to hunt up the "coureurs des bois," and 
withdraw them from the country. They started 
to return with him, but learning that they would 
be arrested at Mackinaw, for violation of law, 
they ran away. While at the villages of the Sioux 
of the lakes and plains, the chiefs brought to 
this officer nineteen of their young men, bound 
with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen, at 
the Illinois. While he remained with them, they 
made peace with the Ojibways of La Pointe, 
with whom they had been at war for some time. 
On his return, four chiefs accompanied him to 
Montreal, to solicit pardon for their young braves. 
The lessees of the trading-post lost many of 
their peltries that winter in consequence of a lire. 
Reminiscences of St. Pierre's residence at Lake 
Pepin were long preserved. Carver, in 1766, "ob- 
served the ruins of a French factory, where, il 
is said. Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on 
a great trade with the Xadouessies before the re- 
duction of Canada." 

Fike. in 1805, wrote in his journal: " Just be- 
low Pt. Le Sable, the French, who had driven the 
Renards [Foxes] from Wisconsin, and chased 
them up the Mississippi, built a stockade on this 
lake, as a barrier against the savages. It became 
a noted factory for the Sioux." 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER IX. 



YEKENDRYE, THE EXPLORER OF NORTHERN MINNESOTA, AND DISCOVERER OF THE ROCKY 

MOUNTAINS. 



Conversation of Verendrye with Father De Gonor.— Parentage and Early Life.— 
Old Indian Map Preserved.— Verendrye's Son and Nephew Explore Pigeon 
River and Reach Rainy lake.— Father Messayer a Companion.— Fort St. Pierre 
Established.— Lake of the Woods Reached and Fort St. Charles Built.— De la 
Jemeraye's Map.— Fort on the Assinaboine River.— Verendrye's Son, Father 
Onneau and Associates K ill.-.l by Su.ux, on Massacre Isle, in Lake of the Woods 
—Fort La Reine.— Verendrye's Eldest Son, with Others, Reaches the Missouri 
River.— Discovers the Rocky Mountains.— Returns to Lake of the Woods.— 
Exploration of Saskatchewan River.— Sieur de la Verendrye Jr.— Verendrye 
the Father, made Captain of the Older of St. Louis.— His Death.— The Swedish 
Traveler, Kalm, Notices Verendrye.— Bougainville Describes Verendrye's Ex- 
plorations.— Legardeur de St. Pierre at Fort La Reine.— Fort Jonquiere Estab- 
lished.— De la Come Succeeds St. Pierre.— SI. Pierre Meets Washington at 
French Creek, in Pennsylvania.— Killed in Battle, near Lake George. 



Early in the year 1728, two travelers met at 
the secluded post of Mackinaw, one was named 
De Gonor, a Jesuit Father, who with Guignas, 
had gone with the expedition, that the September 
before had built Fort Beauharnois on the shores 
of Lake Pepin, the other was Pierre Gualtier Va- 
rennes, the Sieur de la Yerendrye the commander 
of the post on Lake Nepigon of the north shore 
of Lake Superior, and a relative of the Sieur de 
la Perriere, the commander at Lake Pepin. 

Verendrye was the son of Rene Gualtier Va- 
rennes who for twenty-two years was the chief 
magistrate at Three Rivers, whose wife was Ma- 
rie Boucher, the daughter of his predecessor 
whom he had married when she was twelve years 
of age. He became a cadet in 1697, and in 1704 
accompanied an expedition to New England. 
The next year he was in Newfoundland and the 
year following he went to France, joined a regi- 
ment of Brittany and was in the conflict at Mal- 
plaquet when the French troops were defeated 
by the Duke of Marlborough. When he returned 
to Canada he was obliged to accept the position 
of ensign notwithstanding the gallant manner in 
Avhich he had behaved. In time he became iden- 
tified with the Lake Superior region. While at 
Lake Nepigon the Indians assured him that there 
was a communication largely by water to the 
Pacific Ocean. One, named Ochagachs, drew a 
rude map of the country, which is still preserved 
among the French archives. Pigeon River is 



marked thereon Mantohavagane, and the River 
St. Louis is marked R. fond du L. Superior, and 
the Indians appear to have passed from its head- 
waters to Rainy Lake. Upon the western ex- 
tremity is marked the River of the West. 

De Gonor conversed much upon the route to 
the Pacific with Verendrye, and promised to use 
his influence with the Canadian authorities to 
advance the project of exploration. 

Charles De Beauharnois, the Governor of Can- 
ada, gave Verendrye a respectful hearing, and 
carefully examined the map of the region west of 
the great lakes, which had been drawn by Ocha- 
gachs (Otchaga), the Indian guide. Orders were 
soon given to fit out an expedition of fifty men. 
It left Montreal in 1731, under the conduct of his 
sons and nephew De la Jemeraye, he not joining 
the party till 1733, in consequence of the deten- 
tions of business. 

In the autumn of 1731, the party reached Rainy 
Lake, by the Nantouagan, or Groselliers river, 
now called Pigeon. Father Messayer, who had 
been stationed on Lake Superior, at the Grosel- 
liers river, was taken as a spiritual guide. At 
the foot of Rainy Lake a post was erected and 
called Fort St. Pierre, and the next year, having 
crossed Minittie, or Lake of the Woods, they es- 
tablished Fort St. Charles on its southwestern 
bank. Five leagues from Lake Winnipeg they 
established a post on the Assinaboine. An un- 
published map of these discoveries by De la Jem- 
eraye still exists at Paris. The river Winnipeg, 
called by them Maurepas, in honor of the minis- 
ter of France in 1734, was protected by a fort of 
the same name. 

About this time their advance was stopped by 
the exhaustion of supplies, but on the 12th of 
April, 1735, an arrangement was made for a sec- 
ond equipment, and a fourth son joined the expe- 
dition. 

In June, 1736, while twenty-one of the expedi- 



DISCOVEBY OF THE EOCKY MOUNTAINS. 



tion were camped upon an isle in the Lake of the 
Woods, they were surprised by a band of Sioux 
hostile to the French allies, the Cristinaux, and 
all killed. The island, upon this account, is 
called Massacre Island. A few days after, a 
party of five Canadian voyageurs discovered their 
dead bodies and scalped heads. Father Ouneau, 
the missionary, was found upon one knee, an ar- 
row in his head, his breast bare, his left hand 
touching the ground, and the right hand raised. 

Among the slaughtered was also a son of Ver- 
endrye, who had a tomahawk in his back, and his 
body adorned with garters and bracelets of porcu- 
pine. The father was at the foot of the Lake of 
the Woods when he received the news of his son's 
murder, and about the same time heard of the 
death of his enterprising nephew, Dufrost de la 
Jemeraye, the son of his sister Marie Reine de 
Varennes, and brother of Madame Youville, the 
foundress of the Ilospitaliers at Montreal. 

It was under the guidance of the latter that 
the party had, in 1731, mastered the difficulties 
of the Xantaouagon, or Croselliers river. 

On the 3d of October, 1738, they built an ad- 
vanced post, Fort La Reine, on the river Assini- 
boels, now Assinaboine, which they called St 
Charles, and beyond was a branch called St. 
Pierre. These two rivers received the baptismal 
name of Verendrye. which was Pierre, and Gov- 
ernor Beauhamois, which was Charles. The post 
became the centre of trade and point of departure 
for explorations, either north or south. 

It was by ascending the Assinaboine, and by 
the present trail from its tributary. Mouse river, 
they reached the country of the Mantanes. and in 
1741, came to the upper Missouri, passed the Yel- 
low Stone, and at length arrived at the Rocky 
Mountains. The party was led by the eldest son 
and his brother, the chevalier. They left the 
Lake of the Woods on the :29th of April, 174:2. 
came in sight of the Rocky Mountains on the 1st 
of January, 1743, and on the li2t.li ascended them. 
On the route they fell in with the Beaux Hom- 
mes, Pioya, Petits Renards. and Arc tribes, and 
stopped among the Snake tribe, but coidd go no 
farther in a southerly direction, owing to a war 
between the Arcs and Snakes. 

On the 19th of May, 1744, they had returned to 
the upper Missouri, and, in the country of the 
Petite Cerise tribe, they planted on an eminence 



a leaden plate of the arms of France, and raised 
a monument of stones, which they called Beau- 
hamois. They returned to the Lake of the Woods 
on the 2d of July. 

North of the Assiniboine they proceeded to 
Lake Dauphin, Swan's Lake, explored the riv- 
er "Des Biches,"' and ascended even to the 
fork of the Saskatchewan, which they called Pos- 
koiac. Two forts were subsequently established, 
one near Lake Dauphin and the other on the 
river --des Biches," called Fort Bourbon. The 
northern route, by the Saskatchewan, was thought 
to have some advantage over the Missouri, be- 
cause there was no danger of meeting with the 
Spaniards. 

Governor Beauhamois having been prejudiced 
against Verendrye by envious persons, De Noy- 
elles was appointed to take command of the 
posts. During these difficulties, we find Sieur de 
la Verendrye. Jr., engaged in other duties. In 
August, 1747. he arrives from Mackinaw at Mon- 
treal, and in the autumn of that year he accom- 
panies St. Pierre to Mackinaw, and brings back 
the convoy to Montreal. In February, 174S, with 
live Canadians, live Cristenaux. two Ottawas, and 
one Sauteur, he attacked the Mohawks near 
Schenectady, and returned to Montreal with two 
scalps, one that of a chief. On June 20th, 1748, 
it is recorded that Chevalier de hi Verendrye de- 
parted from Montreal for the head of Lake Supe- 
rior. Margry states that he perished at sea in 
November, 17(>4, by the wreck of the " Auguste." 

Fortunately, Galissioniere the successor of 
Beauhamois, although deformed and insignifi- 
cant in appearance, was fair minded, a lover of 
science, especially botany, and anxious to push 
discoveries toward the Pacific. Verendrye the 
father was restored to favor, and made Captain 
of the Order of St. Loins, and ordered to resume 
explorations, but he died on December 6th, 1749, 
while planning a tour up the Saskatchewan. 

The Swedish Professor, Kalm, met him in Can- 
ada, not long before his decease, and had inter- 
esting conversations with him about the furrows 
on the plains of the Missouri, which he errone- 
ously conjectured indicated the former abode of 
an agricultural people. These ruts are familiar 
to modern travelers, and may be only buffalo 
trails. 

Father Coquard, wno had been associated with 



EXPLORE KS AND P10NEEHS OF MINNESOTA. 



Verendrye, says that they first met the Mantanes, 
and next the Btoohets. After tliese were the 
Gros Ventres, the Crows, the Flat Heads, the 
Black Feet, and Dog Feet, who were established 
on the Missouri, even up to the falls, and that 
about thirty leagues beyond they found a narrow 
pass in the mountains. 

Bougainville gives a more full account: he says: 
"He who most advanced this discovery was 
the Sieur de la Veranderie. He went from Fort 
la Reine to the Missouri. He met on the banks 
of this river the Mandans, or White Beards, who 
had seven villages with pine stockades, strength- 
ened by a ditch. Next to these were the Kinon- 
gewiniris. or the Brochets, in three villages, and 
toward the upper part of the river were three 
villages of the Mahantas. All along the mouth 
of the Wabeik, or Shell River, were situated 
twenty-three villages of the Panis. To the south- 
west of this river, on the banks of the Ouanarade- 
ba, or La Graisse, are the Hectanes or Snake 
tribe. They extend to the base of a chain of 
mountains which runs north northeast. South 
of this is the river Karoskiou, or Cerise Pelee, 
which is supposed to flow to California. 

" He found in the immense region watered by 
the Missouri, and in the vicinity of forty leagues, 
the Mahantas, the Owiliniock, or Beaux Hom- 
ines, four villages; opposite the Brochets the Black 
Feet, three villages of a hundred lodges each; op- 
posite the Mandans are the Ospekakaerenousques, 
or Flat Heads, four villages; opposite tha Panis 
are the Arcs of Cristinaux, and Utasibaoutchatas 
of Assiniboel, three villages; following these the 
Makesch, or Little Foxes, two villages; the Pi- 
wassa, or great talkers, three villages; the. Ka- 
kokoschena, or Gens de la Pie, five villages; the 
Kiskipisounouini,, or the Garter tribe, seven vil- 
lages." 

Galassoniere was succeeded by Jonquiere in 
the governorship of Canada, who proved to be a 
grasping, peevish, and very miserly person. For 
the sons of Verendrye he had no sympathy, and 
forming a clique to profit by their father's toils, 



he determined to send two expeditions toward 
the Pacific Ocean, one by the Missouri and the 
other by the Saskatchewan. 

Father Coquard, one of the companions of Ve- 
rendrye, was consulted as to the probability of 
rinding a pass in the Rocky Mountains, through 
which they might, in canoes, reach the great 
lake of salt water, perhaps Puget's Sound. 

The enterprise was at length confided to two 
experienced officers, Lamarque de Marin and 
Jacques Legardeur de Saint Pierre. The former 
was assigned the way, by the Missouri, and to 
the latter was given the more northern route; 
but Saint Pierre in some way excited the hostil- 
ity of the Cristinaux, who attempted to kill him, 
and burned Fort la Reine. His lieutenant, Bou- 
cher de Niverville, who had been sent to establish 
a post toward the source of the Saskatchewan, 
failed on account of sickness. Some of his men, 
however, pushed on to the Rocky Mountains, 
and in 1753 established Fort Jonquiere. Henry 
says St. Pierre established Fort Bourbon. 

In 1753, Saint Pierre was succeeded in the 
command of the posts of the West, by de la 
Corne, and sent to French Creek, in Pennsylva- 
nia. He had been but a few days there when he 
received a visit from Washington, just entering 
upon manhood, bearing a letter from Governor 
Dinwiddie of Virginia, complaining of the en 
croachments of the French. 

Soon the clash of arms between France and 
England began, and Saint Pierre, at the head of 
the Indian allies, fell near Lake George, in Sep- 
tember, 1755, in a battle with the English. After 
the seven years' war was concluded, by the treaty 
of Paris, the French relinquished all their posts 
in the Northwest, and the work begun by Veren- 
drye, was, in 1805, completed by Lewis and 
Clarke ; and the Northern Pacific Railway is fast 
approaching the passes of the RoGky Mountains, 
through the valley of the Yellow Stone, and from 
thence to the great land-locked bay of the ocean, 
Puget's Sound. 



EFFECT OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH WAR. 



61 



CHAPTER X. 



EFFECT OF 



ENGLISH AND i'KEXCH WAR. 



English Influence Increasing.— Le Dnc Robbed at Lake Superior.— St. Pierre at 
Mackinaw. — Escape ot Indian Prisoners. — La Ronde and Verendrye. — Influence 
of Sieur Marin — St. Pierre Recalled from Winnipeg Region.— Interview with 
Washington.— Langlade Urges Attack Upon Troops of Braddock.— Saint Pierre 
Killed in Battle. — Marin's Boldness. — Rogers, a Partisan Ranger, Commands at 
Mackinaw. — At Ticonderoga. — French Deliver np the Posts in Canada. — Capt. 
Balfour Takes Possession of Mackinaw and Green Bay. — Lieut. Gorrell in Com. 
mand at Green Bay.— Sioux Visit Green Bay. — Pennensha a French Trader 
Among the Sioux.— Treaty of Paris. 



English influence produced increasing dissatis- 
faction among the Indians that -were beyond 
Mackinaw. Xot only were the voyageurs robbed 
and maltreated at Sault St. Marie and other points 
on Lake Superior, but even the commandant at 
Mackinaw was exposed to insolence, and there 
was no security anywhere. 

On the twenty-third of August, 1747, Philip Le 
Due arrived at Mackinaw from Lake Superior, 
stating that he had been robbed of his goods at 
Kamanistigoya, and that the Ojibways of the 
lake were favorably disposed toward the English. 
The Dahkotahs were also becoming unruly in the 
absence of French officers. 

In a few weeks after Le Due's robbery. St. 
Pierre left Montreal to become commandant at 
Mackinaw, and Vercheres was appointed for the 
post at Green Bay. In the language of a docu- 
ment of the day, St. Pierre was " a very good 
officer, much esteemed among all the nations of 
those parts ; none more loved and feared." On 
his arrival, the savages were so cross, that he ad- 
vised that no Frenchman should come to trade. 

By promptness and boldness, he secured the 
Indians who had murdered some Frenchmen, 
and obtained the respect of the tribes. While 
the three murderers were being conveyed in a 
canoe down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, in charge 
of a sergeant and seven soldiers, the savages, with 
characteristic cunning, though manacled, suc- 
ceeded in killing or drowning the guard. Cutting 
their irons with an axe, they sought the woods, 
and escaped to their own country. '• Thus,'' 
writes Galassoniere, in 1748, to Count Maurepas, 



was lost in a great measure the fruit of Sieur St. 
Pierre's good management, and of all the fatigue 
I endured to get the nations who surrendered 
these rascals to listen to reason." 

On the twenty-first of June of the next year, 
La Ronde started to La Pointe, and Yerendrye 
for West Sea, or Fon du Lac, Minnesota. 

Under the influence of Sieur Marin, who was 
in command at Green Bay in 17-53. peaceful re- 
lations were in a measure restored between the 
French and Indians. 

As the war between England and France deep- 
ened, the officers of the distant French posts 
were called in and stationed nearer the enemy. 
Legardeur St. Pierre, was brought from the Lake 
Winnipeg region, and. in December, 1753, was in 
command of a rude post near Erie. Pennsylvania. 
Langlade, of Green Bay. Wisconsin, arrived early 
in July. 1755, at Fort Duquesne. With Beauyeu 
and De Lignery. who had been engaged in fight- 
ing the Fox Indians, he left that fort, at nine 
o"clock of the morning of the 9th of July, and, a 
little after noon, came near the English, who had 
halted on the south shore of the Monongahela, 
and were at dinner, witli their arms stacked. By 
the urgent entreaty of Langlade, the western 
half-breed, Beauyeu, the officer in command or- 
dered an attack, and Braddock was overwhelmed, 
and Washington was obliged to say, " We have 
been beaten, shamefully beaten, by a handful of 
Frenchmen." 

Under Baron Dieskau. St. Pierre commanded 
the Indians, in September. 1755, during the cam- 
paign near Lake George, where he fell gallantly 
fighting the English, as did his commander. 
The Rev. Claude Coquard. alluding to the French 
defeat, in a letter to his brother, remarks: 

•• We lost, on that occasion, a brave officer. M. 
de St. Pierre, and had his advice, as well as that 
of several other Canadian officers, been followed. 
Jonckson [Johnson] was irretrievably destroyed. 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



and we should have been spared the trouble we 

have had this year." 1 

Other officers who had been stationed on the 
borders of Minnesota also distinguished them- 
selves during the French war. The Marquis 
Montcalm, in camp at Ticonderoga, on the twen- 
ty-seventh of July, 1757, writes to Vaudreuil, 
Governor of Canada: 

" Lieutenant Marin, of the Colonial troops, who 
has exhibited a rare audacity, did not consider 
himself bound to halt, although his detachment 
of about four hundred men was reduced to about 
two hundred, the balance having been sent back 
on account of inability to follow. He carried off 
a patrol of ten men, and swept away an ordinary 
guard of fifty like a wafer; went up to the en- 
emy "s camp, under Fort Lydias (Edward), where 
he was exposed to a severe fire, and retreated like 
a warrior. He was unwilling to amuse himself 
making prisoners; he brought in only one, and 
thirty-two scalps, and must have killed many men 
of the enemy, in the midst of whose ranks it was 
neither wise nor prudent to go in search of scalps. 
The Indians generally all behaved well. * * * 
The Outaouais, who arrived with me, and whom 
I designed to go on a scouting party towards the 
lake, had conceived a project of administering a 
corrective to the English barges. * * * On 
the day before yesterday, your brother formed a 
detachment to accompany them. I arrived at his 
camp on the evening of the same day. Lieuten- 
ant de Corbiere, of the Colonial troops, was re- 
turning, in consequence of a misunderstanding, 
and as I knew the zeal and intelligence of that 
officer, I made him set out with a new instruc- 
tion to join Messrs de Langlade and Hertel de 
Chantly. They remained in ambush all day and 
night yesterday; at break of day the English ap- 
peared on Lake St. Sacrament, to the number of 
twenty-two barges, under the command of Sieur 
Parker. The whoops of our Indians impressed 
them with such terror that they made but feeble 
resistance, and only two barges escaped." 

After De Corbiere 's victory on Lake Cham- 
plain, a large French army was collected at Ti- 
conderoga, with which there were many Indians 
from the tribes of the Northwest, and the Ioways 
appeared for the first time in the east. 

It is an interesting fact that the English offi- 
cers who were in frequent engagements with St. 



Pierre, Lusignan, Marin, Langlade, and others, 
became the pioneers of the British, a few years 
afterwards, in the occupation of the outposts of 
the lakes, and in the exploration of Minnesota. 

Eogers, the celebrated captain of rangers, sub- 
sequently commander of Mackinaw, and Jona- 
than Carver, the first British explorer of Minne- 
sota, were both on duty near Lake Champlain,the 
latter narrowly escaping at the battle of Fort 
George. 

On Christmas eve, 1757, Eogers approached 
Fort Ticonderoga, to fire the outhouses, but was 
prevented by discharge of the cannons of the 
French. 

He contented himself with killing fifteenbeeves, 
on the horns of one of which he left this laconic 
and amusing note, addressed to the commander 
of the post: 

'•I am obliged to you, Sir, for the repose you 
have allowed me to take; I thank you for the fresh 
meat you have sent me, I request you to present 
my compliments to the Marquis du Montcalm." 

On the thirteenth of March, 1758, Durantaye, 
formerly at Mackinaw, had a skirmish with Eog- 
ers. Both had been trained on the frontier, and 
they met "as Greek met Greek." The conflict 
was fierce, and the French victorious. The In- 
dian allies, finding a scalp of a chief underneath 
an officer's jacket, were furious, and took one 
hundred and fourteen scalps in return. When 
the French returned, they supposed that Captain 
Eogers was among the killed. 

At Quebec, when Montcalm and "Wolfe fell, 
there were O jib ways present assisting the French 

The Indians, returning from the expeditions 
against the English, were attacked with small- 
pox, and many died at Mackinaw. 

On the eighth of September, 1760, the French 
delivered up all their posts in Canada. A few 
days after the capitulation at Montreal, Major 
Eogers was sent with English troops, to garrison 
the posts of the distant Northwest. 

On the eighth of September, 1761, a year after 
the surrender, Captain Balfour, of the eightieth 
regiment of the British army, left Detroit, with 
a detachment to take possession of the French 
forts at Mackinaw and Green Bay. Twenty-five 
soldiers were left at Mackinaw, in command of 
Lieutenant Leslie, and the rest sailed to Green 
Bay, under Lieutenant Gorrell of the Eoyal 



PENNENSHA WHITES A LETTER FOB THE SIOUX. 



Americans, where they arrived on the twelfth of 
October. The fort had been abandoned for sev- 
eral years, and was in a dilapidated condition. 
In charge- of it there was left a lieutenant, a cor- 
poral, and fifteen soldiers. Two English traders 
arrived at the same time, McKay from Albany, 
and Goddard from Montreal. 

Gorrell in his journal alludes to the Minnesota 
Sioux. lie writes— 

" On March 1, 1763, twelve warriors of the Sous 
came here. It is certainly the greatest nation of 
Indians ever yet found. Not above two thousand 
of them were ever armed with firearms ; the rest 
depending entirely on bows and arrows, which 
they use with more skill than any other Indian 
nation in America. They can shoot the wildest 
and largest beasts in the woods at seventy or one 
hundred yards distant. They are remarkable for 
their dancing, and the other nations take the 
fashions from them. ***** This nation 
is always at war with the Chippewas, those who 
destroyed Mishamakinak. They told me with 
warmth that if ever the Chippewas or any other 
Indians wished to obstruct the passage of the 
traders coming up, to send them word, and they 
would come and cut them oft' from the face of 
the earth ; as all Indians were their slaves or dogs. 
I told them I was glad to see them, and hoped to 
have a lasting peace with them. They then gave 
me a letter wrote in French, and two belts of 
wampum from their king, in which he expressed 
great joy on hearing of there being English at 
his post. The letter was written by a French | 
trader whom I had allowed to go among them 
last fall, with a promise of his behaving well ; 
which he did, better than any Canadian I ever 
knew. ***** With regard to traders. I 
would not allow any to go amongst them, as I 



then understood they lay out of the government 
of Canada, but made no doubt they would have 
traders from the Mississippi in the spring. They 
went away extremely well pleased. June 14th, 
1763, the traders came down from the Sack coun- 
try, and confirmed the news of Landsmg and his 
son being killed by the French. There came with 
the traders some Puans, and four young men with 
one chief of the Avoy [Ioway] nation, to demand 
traders. ***** 

'• On the nineteenth, a deputation of Winneba- 
goes, Sacs, Foxes and Menominees arrived with 
a Frenchman named Pennensha. This Pennen- 
sha is the same man who wrote the letter the 
Sous brought with them in French, and at the 
same time held council with that great nation in 
favour of the English, by which he much promo- 
ted the interest of the latter, as appeared by the 
behaviour of the Sous. He brought with him a 
pipe from the Sous, desiring that as the road is 
now clear, they would by no means allow the 
Chippewas to obstruct it, or give the English any 
disturbance, or prevent the traders from coming 
up to them. If they did so they would send all 
their warriors and cut them off." 

In July, 1763, there arrived at Green Bay, 
Bruce, Fisher; and Roseboom of Albany, to en- 
gage in the Indian trade. 

By the treaty of Paris of 1763, France ceded to 
(.real Britain all of the country east of the Mis- 
sissippi, and to Spain the whole of Louisiana, so 
that the latter power for a time held the whole 
region between the Mississippi River and the Pa- 
cific Ocean, and that portion of the city of Min- 
neapolis known as the East Division was then 
governed by the British, while the West Division 
was subject to the Spanish code. 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNES01A. 



CHAPTER XI. 

JONATHAN CARVER, THE FIRST BRITISH TRAVELER AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 



Carters Early Life.— In the Battle near Lake George.— Arrives at Mackinaw.- 
Old Fori at Given Bay.— Winnebago Village.— Description of Prairie ilu Cliien. 
Earthworks on Banks of Lake Pepin.— Sioux Bands Described.— Cave and 
Burial Place in Suburbs of St. Paul.— The Falls of Saint Anthony.— Burial 
Rites of tLe Sioux.— Speech of a Sioux Chief.— Schiller's Poem of the Death 
Song. — Sir John Herschel's Translation. —Sir E. Bnlwer Lytton's Version.— 
Correspondence of Sir William Jubnson ---Carver's Project for Opening a Route 
to the Pacific— Supposed Origin of the Sioux.— Carver's Claim to Lands Ex- 
amined.— Alleged Deed.— Testimony of Rev. Samuel Peters.— Communication 
from Gen. Leavenworth. ---Report of II. S. Senate Committee. 

Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut 
His grandfather, William Carver, was a native of 
Wigan, Lancashire, England, and a captain in 
King William's army during the campaign in 
Ireland, and for meritorious services received an 
appointment as an officer of the colony of Con- 
necticut. 

His father was a justice of the peace in the 
new world, and in 1732, the subject of this sketch 
was born. At the early age of fifteen he was 
called to mourn the death of his father. He then 
commenced the study of medicine, but his roving 
disposition could not bear the confines of a doc- 
tor's office, and feeling, perhaps, that his genius 
would be cramped by pestle and mortar, at the 
age of eighteen he purchased an ensign's commis- 
sion in one of the regiments raised during the 
French war. He was of medium stature, and of 
strong mind and quick perceptions. 

In the year 1757, he was captain under Colonel 
Williams in the battle near Lake George, where 
Saint Pierre was killed, and narrowly escaped 
with his life. 

After the peace of 1763, between France and 
England was declared, Carver conceived the pro- 
ject of exploring the Northwest. Leaving Boston 
in the month of June, 1766, he arrived at Macki- 
naw, then the most distant British post, in the 
month of August. Having obtained a credit on 
some French and English traders from Major 
Rogers, the officer in command, he started with 
them on the third day of September. Pursuing 
the usual route to Green Bay, they arrived there 
on the eighteenth. 



The French fort at that time was standing, 
though much decayed. It was, some years pre- 
vious to his arrival, garrisoned for a short time 
by an officer and thirty English soldiers, but they 
having been captured by the Menominees, it was 
abandoned. 

In company with the traders, he left Green 
Bay on the twentieth, and ascending Fox river, 
arrived on the twenty-fifth at an island at the 
east end of Lake Winnebago, containing about 
fifty acres. 

Here he found a Winnebago village of fifty 
houses. He asserts that a woman was in author- 
ity. In the month of October the party was at 
the portage of the Wisconsin, and descending 
that stream, they arrived, on the ninth at a town 
of the Sauks. While here he visited some lead 
mines about fifteen miles distant. An abundance 
of lead was also seen in the village, that had been 
brought from the mines. 

On the tenth they arrived at the first village of 
the " Ottigaumies" [Foxes] about five miles be- 
fore the AVisconsin joins the Mississippi, he per- 
ceived the remnants of another village, and 
learned that it had-been deserted about thirty 
years before, and that the inhabitants soon after 
their removal, built a town on the Mississippi, 
near the mouth of the " Ouisconsin," at a place 
called by the French La Prairie les Chiens, which 
signified the Dog Plains. It was a large town, 
and contained about three hundred families. 
The houses were built after the Indian manner, 
and pleasantly situated on a dry rich soil. 

He saw here many houses of a good size and 
shape. This town was the great mart where all 
the adjacent tribes, and where those who inhabit 
the most remote branches of the Mississippi, an- 
nually assemble about the latter end of May, 
bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the 
traders. But it is not always that they conclude 
their sale here. This was determined by a gen 



SUPPOSED FORTIFICATIONS NEAR LAKE PEPIN. 



65 



eral council of the chiefs, who consulted whether 
it would be more conducive to their interest to 
sell their goods at this place, or to carry them 
on to Louisiana or Mackinaw. 

At a small stream called Yellow River, oppo- 
site Prairie du Chieu, the traders who had thus 
far accompanied Carver took up their residence 
for the winter. 

From this point he proceeded in a canoe, with 
a Canadian voyageur and a Mohawk Indian as 
companions. Just before reaching Lake Pepin, 
while his attendants were one day preparing din- 
ner, he walked out and was struck with the pecu- 
liar appearance of the surface of the country, and 
thought it was the site of some vast artificial 
earth-work. It is a fact worthy of remembrance, 
that he was the first to call the attention of the 
civilized world to the existence of ancient monu- 
ments in the Mississippi valley. We give his own 
description : 

" On the first of November I reached Lake 
Pepin, a few miles below which I landed, and, 
whilst the servants were preparing my dinner. I 
ascended the bank to view the country. I had 
not proceeded far before I came to a fine, level, 
open plain, on which I perceived, at a little dis- 
tance, a partial elevation that had the appearance 
of entrenchment. On a nearer inspection I had 
greater reason to suppose that it had really been 
intended for this many centuries ago. Notwith- 
standing it was now covered with grass, I could 
plainly see that it had once been a breastwork of 
about four feet in height, extending the best part 
of a mile, and sufficiently capacious to cover five 
thousand men. Its form was somewhat circular 
and its flanks reached to the river. 

" Though much defaced by time, every angle 
was distinguishable, and appeared as regular and 
fashioned with as much military skill as if planned 
by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible, 
but I thought, on examining more curiously, that 
I could perceive there certainly had been one. 
From its situation, also. I am convinced that it 
must have been designed for that purpose. It 
fronted the country, and the rear was covered by 
the river, nor was there any rising ground for a 
considerable way that commanded it; a few 
straggling lakes were alone to be seen near it. 
In many places small tracks were worn across it 
by the feet of the elks or deer, and from the depth 



of the bed of earth by which it was covered, I was 
able to draw certain conclusions of its great anti- 
quity. I examined all the angles, and every part 
with great attention, and have often blamed my- 
self since, for not encamping on the spot, and 
drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this 
description is not the offspring of a heated imag- 
ination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken trav- 
eler, I find, on inquiry since my return, that 
Mons. St. Pierre, and several traders have at dif- 
ferent times, taken notice of similar appearances, 
upon which they have formed the same conjec- 
tures, but without examining them so minutely 
as I did. How a work of this kind could exist in 
a country that has hitherto (according to the gen- 
erally received opinion) been the seat of war to 
untutored Indians alone, whose whole stock of 
military knowledge has only, till within two cen- 
turies, amounted to drawing the bow, and whose 
only breastwork even at present is the thicket, I 
know not. I have given as exact an account as 
possible of this singular appearance, and leave to 
future explorers of those distant regions, to dis- 
cover whether it is a production of nature or art. 
Perhaps the hints I have here given might lead 
to a more perfect investigation of it, and give us 
very different ideas of the ancient state of realms 
that we at present believe to have been, from the 
earliest period, only the habitations of savages." 

Lake Pepin excited his admiration, as it has 
that of every traveler since his day. and here he 
remarks : " I observed the ruins of a French fac- 
tory, where it is said Captain St. Pierre resided, 
and carried on a very great trade with the Nau- 
dowessies. before the reduction of Canada." 

Carver'8 first acquaintance with the Dahkotahs 
commenced near the river St. Croix. It would 
seem that the erection of trading posts on Lake 
Pepin had enticed them from their old residence 
on Rum river and Mille Lacs. 

He says: "Near the river St. Croix reside 
bands of the Naudowessie Indians, called the 
River Bands. This nation is composed at pres- 
ent of eleven bands. They were originally 
twelve, but the Assinipoils, some years ago, re- 
volting and separating themselves from the oth- 
ers, there remain at this time eleven. Those I 
met here are termed the River Bands, because 
they chiefly dwell near the banks of this river; 
the other eight are generally distinguished by the 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



title of Nadowessies of the Plains, and inhabit a 
country more to the westward. The names of 
the former are Nohogatawonahs, the Mawtaw- 
bauntowahs, and Shashweentowahs. 

Arriving at what is now a suburb of the cap- 
ital of Minnesota, he continues: "About thir- 
teen miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, at 
which 1 arrived the tenth day after I left Lake 
Pepin, is a remarkable cave, of an amazing depth. 
The Indians term it "Wakon-teebe [Wakan-tipi]. 
The entrance into it is about ten feet wide, the 
height of it five feet. The arch within is fifteen 
feet high and about thirty feet broad; the bottom 
consists of fine, clear sand. About thirty feet 
from the entrance begins a lake, the water of 
which is transparent, and extends to an unsearch- 
able distance, for the darkness of the cave pre- 
ents all attempts to acquire a knowledge of it.] 
I threw a small pebble towards the nterior part 
of it with my utmost strength. I could hear that 
it fell into the water, and, notwithstanding it was 
of a small size, it caused an astonishing and ter- 
rible noise, that reverberated through all those 
gloomy regions. I found in this cave many In- 
dian hieroglyphics, which appeared very ancient, 
for time had nearly covered them with moss, so 
that it was with difficulty I could trace them. 
They were cut in a rude manner upon the inside 
of the wall, which was composed of a stone so ex- 
tremely soft that it might be easily penetrated 
with a knife; a stone everywhere to be found 
near the Mississippi. 

" At a little distance from this dreary cavern, 
is the burying-place of several bands of the Nau- 
dowessie Indians. Though these people have no 
fixed residence, being in tents, and seldom but a 
few months in one spot, yet they always bring 
the bones of the dead to this place. 

"Ten miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, 
the river St. Pierre, called by the natives Wada- 
paw Menesotor, falls into the Mississippi from the 
west. It is not mentioned by Father Hennepin, 
though a large, fair river. This omission, I con- 
sider, must have proceeded from a small island 
[Pike's] that is situated exactly in its entrance." 

When he reached the Minnesota river, the ice 
became so troublesome that he left his canoe in 
the neighborhood of what is now St. Anthony, 
and walked to St. Anthony, in company with a 
young Winnebago chief, who had never seen the 



curling waters. The chief, on reaching the emi- 
nence some distance below Clieever's, began to 
invoke his gods, and offer oblations to the spirit 
in the waters. 

"In the middle of the Falls stands a small 
island, about forty feet broad and somewhat lon- 
ger, on which grow a few cragged hemlock and 
spruce trees, and about half way between this 
island and the eastern shore is a rock, lying at 
the very edge of the Falls, in an oblique position, 
that appeared to be about five or six feet broad, 
and thirty or forty long. At a little distance be- 
low the Falls stands a small island of about an 
acre and a half, on which grow a great number of 
oak trees." 

From this description, it would appear that the 
little island, now some distance below the Falls, 
was once in the very midst, and shows that a con- 
stant recession has been going on, and that in 
ages long past they were not far from the Minne- 
sota river. 

No description is more glowing than Carver's 
of the country adjacent: 

" The country around them is extremely beau- 
tiful. It is not an uninterrupted plain, where the 
eye finds no relief, but composed of many gentle 
ascents, which in the summer are covered with 
the finest verdure, and interspersed with little 
groves that give a pleasing variety to the pros- 
pect. On the whole, when the Falls are inclu- 
ded, which may be seen at a distance of four 
miles, a more pleasing and picturesque view, I 
believe, cannot be found throughout the uni- 
verse." 

" He arrived at the Falls on the seventeenth of 
November, 1766, and appears to have ascended as 
far as Elk river. 

On the twenty-fifth of November, he had re- 
turned to the place opposite the Minnesota, where 
he had left his canoe, and this stream as yet not 
being obstructed with ice, he commenced its as- 
cent, with the colors of Great Britain flying at 
the stern of his canoe. There is no doubt that 
he entered this river, but how far he explored it 
cannot be ascertained. He speaks of the Eapids 
near Shakopay, and asserts that he went as far as 
two hundred miles beyond Mendota. He re- 
marks: 

" On the seventh of December, I arrived at the 
utmost of my travels towards the West, where I 






SIOUX BURIAL ORATION VERSIFIED BY SCHILLER. 



met a large party of the Xaudowessie Indians, 
among whom I resided some months." 

After speaking of the upper bands of the Dah- 
kotahs and their allies, he adds that he " left the 
habitations of the hospitable Indians the latter 
end of April, 1767, but did not part from them 
for several days, as I was accompanied on my 
journey by near three hundred of them to the 
mouth of the river St. Pierre. At this season 
these bands annually go to the great cave (Day- 
ton's Bluff) before mentioned. 

When he arrived at the great cave, and the In- 
dians had deposited the remains of their deceased 
friends in the burial-place that stands adjacent 
to it, they held their great council to which he 
was admitted. 

"When the Xaudowessies brought their dead for 
interment to the great cave (St. Paul), I attempted 
to get an insight into the remaining burial rites, 
but whether it was on account of the stench 
which arose from so many dead bodies, or whether 
they chose to keep this part of their custom secret 
from me, I could not discover. I found, however, 
that they considered my curiosity as ill-timed, 
and therefore I withdrew. * * 

One formality among the Xaudowessies in 
mourning for the dead is very different from any 
mode I observed in the other nations through 
which I passed. The men, to show how great 
their sorrow is, pierce the flesh of their arms 
above the elbows with arrows, and the womtn 
cut and gash their legs with broken flints till the 
blood flows very plentifully. * * 

After the breath is departed, the body is 
dressed in the same attire it usually wore, his 
face is painted, and he is seated in an erect pos- 
ture on a mat or skin, placed in the middle of the 
hut, with his weapons by his side. His relatives 
seated around, each in turn harangues the de- 
ceased; and if he has been a great warrior, re- 
counts his heroic actions, nearly to the following 
purport, which in the Indian language is extreme- 
ly poetical aud pleasing 

; - You still sit among us, brother, your person 
retains its usual resemblance, and continues sim- 
ilar to ours, without any visible deficiency, ex- 
cept it has lost the power of action! But whither 
is that breath flown, which a few hours ago sent 
up smoke to the Great Spirit? Why are those 
lips silent, that lately delivered to us expressions 



and pleasing language? Why are those feet mo- 
tionless, that a few hours ago were fleeter than 
the deer on yonder mountains? Why useless 
hang those arms, that could climb the tallest tree 
or draw the toughest bow? Alas, every part of 
that frame which we lately beheld with admira- 
tion and wonder has now become as inanimate as 
it was three hundred years ago! We will not, 
however, bemoan thee as if thou wast forever 
lost to us, or that thy name would be buried in 
oblivion; thy soul yet lives in the great country 
of spirits, with those of thy nation that have gone 
before thee; aud though we are left behind to 
perpetuate thy fame, we will one day join thee. 

" Actuated by the respect we bore thee whilst 
living, we now come to tender thee the last act of 
kindness in our power; that thy body might not 
he neglected on the plain, and become a prey to 
the beasts of the field or fowls of the air, and we 
will take care to lay it with those of thy predeces- 
sors that have gone before thee; hoping at the 
sauie time that thy spirit will feed with their 
spirits, and be ready to receive ours when we 
shall also arrive at the great country of souls.'' 

For this speech Carver is principally indebted 
to his imagination, but it is well conceived, and 
suggested one of Schiller's poems, which Goethe 
considered one of his best, and wished " he had 
made a dozen such." 

Sir E. Lytton Bulwer the distinguished novelist, 
and Sir John Herschel the eminent astronomer, 
have each given a translation of Schiller's ' ' Song 
of the Xadowessee Chief." 

SIR E. L. BULWEK'S TRANSLATION*. 

See on his mat— as if of yore, 

All life-like sits he here ! 
With that same aspect which he wore 

When light to him was dear 

But where the right hand's strength ? and where 

The breath that loved to breathe 
To the Great Spirit, aloft in air. 

The peace pipe's lusty wreath ? 

And where the hawk-like eye, alas ! 

That wont the deer pursue, 
Along the waves of rippling grass, 

Or fields that shone with dew ? 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



Axe those the limber, bounding' feet 
That swept the winter's snows ? 

What stateliest stag so fast and fleet? 
Their speed outstripped the roe's ! 

These arms, that then the steady bow 

Could supple from it's pride, 
How stark and helpless hang they now 

Adown the stiffened side ! 

Yet weal to him — at peace he stays 

Wherever fall the snows ; 
Where o'er the meadows springs the maize 

That mortal never sows. 

Where birds are blithe on every brake- 
Where orests teem with deer— _ 

Where glide the fish through every lake — 
One chase from year to year ! 

With spirits now he feasts above ; 

All left us to revere 
The deeds we honor with our love, 

The dust we bury here. 

Here bring the last gift ; loud and shrill 
Wail death dirge for the. brave ; 

What pleased him most in life, may still 
Give pleasure in the grave. 

We 1 ly the axe beneath his head 
He swung when strength was strong— 

The bear on which his banquets fed, 
The way from earth is long. 

And here, new sharpened, place the knife 

That severed from the clay. 
From which the axe had spoiled the life, 

The conquered scalp away. 

The paints that deck the dead, bestow ; 

Yes, place them in his hand, 
That red the kingly shade may glow 

Amid the spirit land. 

SIR JOHN HERSCHEL'S TRANSLATION. 

See, where upon the mat he sits 

Erect, before his door, 
With just the same majestic air 

That once in life he wore. 



But where is fled his strength of -limb, 

The whirlwind of his breath, 
To the Great Spirit, when he sent 

The peace pipe's mounting wreath? 

Where are those falcon eyes,- which late 

Along the plain could trace, 
Along the grass's dewy waves 

The reindeer's printed pace? 

Those legs, which once with matchless speed, 

Flew through the drifted snow, 
Surpassed the stag's unwearied course, 

Outran the mountain roe? 

Those arms, once used with might and main, 

The stubborn bow to twang? 
See, see, their nerves are slack at last, 

All motionless they hang. 

'Tis well with him, for he is gone 

Where snow no more is found, 
Where the gay thorn's perpetual bloom 

Decks all the field around. 

Where wild birds sing from every spray, 

Where deer ccme sweeping by, 
Where fish from every lake afford 

A plentiful supply. 

With spirits now he feasts above, 

And leaves us here alone, 
To celebrate his valiant derds, 

And round his grave to moan. 

Sound the death song, bring forth the gifts, 

The last gifts of the dead,— 
Let all which yet may yield him joy 

Within his grave be laid. 

The hatchet place beneath his head 

Still red with hostile blood; 
And add, because the way is long, 

The bear's fat limbs for food. 

The scalping-knife beside him lay, 

With paints of gorgeous dye, 
That in the land of souls his form 

May shine triumphantly. 

It appears from other sources that Carver's 
visit to the Dahkotahs was of some effect in bring- 
ing about friendly intercourse between them and 
the commander of the English force at Mackinaw. 



CABVEB'S PROJECT FOB A BOUTE TO THE PACIFIC. 



69 



The earliest mention of the Dahkotas, in any 
public British documents that -we know of, is in 
the correspondence between Sir William Johnson, 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Colony 
of iNew York, and General Gage, in command of 
the forces. 

On the eleventh of September, less than six 
months after Carver's speech at Dayton's Bluff, 
and the departure of a number of chiefs to the 
English fort at Mackinaw, Johnson writes to 
General Gage: " Though I wrote to you some 
days ago, yet I would not mind saying something 
again on the score of the vast expenses incurred, 
and, as I understand, still incurring at Michili- 
mackinac, chiefly on pretence of making a peace 
between the Sioux and Chippeweighs, with which 
I think we have very little to do, in good policy 
or otherwise."' 

Sir William Johnson, in a letter to Lord Hills- 
borough, one of his Majesty's ministers, dated 
August seventeenth, 1768, again refers to the 
subject: 

"Much greater part of those who go a trading 
are men of such circumstances and disposition as 
to venture their persons everywhere for extrava- 
gant gains, yet the consequences to the public 
are not to be slighted, as we may be led into a 
general quarrel through their means. The In- 
dians in the part adjacent to Michilimackinac 
have been treated with at a very great expense 
for some time previous. 

••Major Rodgers brings a considerable charge 
against the former for mediating a peace between 
some tribes of the Sioux and some of the Chippe- 
weighs, which, had it been attended with success, 
■would only have been interesting to a very few- 
French, and others, that had goods in that part 
of the Indian country, but the contrary has hap- 
pened, and they are now more violent, and war 
against one another." 

Though a wilderness of over one thousand miles 
intervened between the Falls of St. Anthony and 
the white settlements of the English, Carver was 
fully impressed with the idea that the State how 
organized under the name Of Minnesota, on ac- 
count of its beauty and fertility, would attract 
settlers. 

Speaking of the advantages of the country, he 
says that the future population will be "able to 
convej their produce to the seaports with great 



facility', the current of the river from its source 
to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico being ex- 
tremely favourable for doing this in small craft 
This might also m time be facilitated by canals or 
shorter cuts, and a communication opened by water 
with New York, by way of the Lakes.'''' 

The subject of this sketch was also confident 
that a route would be discovered by way of the 
Minnesota river, which "would open a passage 
to China and the English settlements in the East 
Indies." 

Carver, having returned to England, interested 
Whit worth, a member of parliament, in the 
northern route. Had not the American Revolu- 
tion commenced, they proposed to have built a 
fort at Lake Pepin, to have proceeded up the 
Minnesota until they found, as they supposed 
they could, a branch of the Missouri, and from 
thence, journeying over the summit of lands un- 
til they came to a river which they called Oregon, 
they expected to descend to the Pacific. 

Carver, in common with other travelers, had 
Lis theory in relation to the origin of the Dahko- 
tahs. lie supposed that they came from Asia. 
He remark.:- •• But tliic might have been at dif- 
ferent times and from various parts — from Tar- 
tary. China, Japan, for the inhabitants of these 
places resemble each other. * * * 

" It is very evident that some of the r.ames and 
customs of the American Indians resemble those 
of the Tartars, and I make no doubt but that in 
some future era. and this not far distant, it will 
be reduced to certainty that during some of the 
wars between the Tartars and Chinese a part of 
the inhabitauts of the northern provinces were 
driven from their native country, and took refuge 
in some of the isles before mentioned, and from 
thence found their way into America. * * * 

•• Many words are used both by the Chinese and 
the Indians which have a resemblance to each 
other, not only in their sound, but in their signi- 
fication. The Chinese call a slave Shungo; and 
the Xaudowessic Indians, whose language, from 
their little intercourse with the Europeans, is 
least corrupted, term a dog Shungush [Shoan- 
kah]. The f jrmcr denominate one species of their 
tea Shoushong; the latter call their tobacco Shou- 
sas-sau [Chanshasha]. Many other of the words 
used by the Indians contain the syllables c/ie, 
chaw, and chu, after the dialect of the Chinese." 



70 



EXPLOBEES AND PIONEEHS OF MINNESOTA. 



The comparison of languages has become a rich 
source of his'., rical knowledge, yet many of the 
analogies traced are fanciful. The remark of 
llumbolt in " Cosmos'' is worthy of remembrance. 
■As the structure of American idioms appears 
remarkably strange to nations speaking the mod- 
ern languages of Western Europe, and who readily 
suffer themselves to be led away by some acci- 
dental analogies of sound, theologians have gen- 
erally believed that they could trace an affinity 
with the Hebrew, Spanish colonists with the 
Basque and the English, or Trench settlers with 
Gaelic, Erse, or the Bas Breton. I one day met 
on the coast of Peru, a Spanish naval officer and 
an English whaling captain, the former of whom 
declared that he had heard Basque spoken at Ta- 
hiti; the other, Gaelic or Erse at the Sandwich 
Islands." 

Carver became very poor while in England, 
and was a clerk in a lottery-office. He died in 
1780, and left a widow, two sons, and five daught- 
ers, in New England, and also a child by another 
wife that he had married in Great Britain 

After his death a claim was urged for the land 
upon which the capital of Minnesota now stands' 
and for many miles adjacent. As there are still 
many persons who believe that they have some 
right through certain deeds purporting to be from 
the heirs of Carver, it is a matter worthy of an 
investigation. 

Carver says nothing in his book of travels in re- 
lation to a grant from the Dahkotahs, but after 
he was buried, it was asserted that there was a 
deed belonging to him in existence, conveying 
valuable lands, and that said deed was executed 
at the cave now in the eastern suburbs of Saint 
Paul. " 

DEED PURPORTING TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN AT 
THE CAVE IN THE BLUFF BELOW ST. PAUL. 

" To Jonathan Carver, a chief under the most 
mighty and potent George the Third, King of the 
English and other nations, the fame of whose 
warriors has reached our ears, and has now been 
fully told us by our good brother Jonathan, afore- 
said, whom we rejoice to have come among us, 
and bring us good news from his country. 

"We, chiefs of the Naudowessies, who have 
hereunto set our seals, do by these presents, for 
ourselves and heirs forever, in return for the aid 
and other good services done by the said Jona- 



than to ourselves and allies, give grant and con- 
vey to him, the said Jonathan, and to his heirs 
and assigns forever, the whole of a certain tract 
or territory of land, bounded as follows, viz: from 
the Falls of St. Anthony, running on the east 
bank of the Mississippi, nearly southeast, as far 
as Lake Pepin, where the Chippewa joins the 
Mississippi, and from thence eastward five days 
travel, accounting twenty English miles per day; 
and from thence again to the Falls of St. Anthony, 
on a direct straight line. We do for ourselves, 
heirs, and assigns, forever give unto the said Jo- 
nathan, his heirs and assigns, with all the trees, 
rocks, and rivers therein, reserving the sole lib- 
erty of hunting and fishing on land not planted 
or improved by the said Jonathan, his heirs and 
assigns, to which we have affixed our respective 
seals. 

" At the Great Cave, May 1st, 1767. 

"Signed, HAWNOPAWJATIN. 

OTOHTGNGOOMLISHEAW. " 

The original deed was never exhibited by the 
assignees of the heirs. By his English wife Car- 
ver had one child, a daughter Martha, who was 
cared for by Sir Kichard and Lady Pearson. In 
time she eloped and married a sailor. A mercan- 
tile firm in London, thinking that money could 
be made, induced the newly married couple, the 
day after the wedding, to convey the grant to 
them, with the understanding that they were to 
have a tenth of the profits. 

The merchants despatched an agent by the 
name of Clarke to go to the Dahkotahs, and ob- 
tain a new deed; but on his way he was murdered 
in the state of New York. 

In the year 1794, the heirs of Carver's Ameri- 
can wife, in consideration of fifty thousand pounds 
sterling, conveyed their interest in the Carver 
grant to Edward Houghton of Vermont. In the 
year 1806, Samuel Peters, who had been a tory 
and an Episcopal minister during the Kevolu- 
tionary war, alleges, in a petition to Congress, 
that he had also purchased of the heirs of Carver 
their rights to the grant. 

Before the Senate committee, the same year, 
he testified as follows: 

" In the year 1774, I arrived there (London), 
and met Captain Carver. In 1775, Carver had a 
hearing before the king, praying his majesty's 
approval of a deed of land dated May first, 1767, 



UNITED STATES REJECT CARVERS CLAIM. 



and sold and granted to him by the Naudowissies. 
The result was his majesty approved of the -exer- 
tions and bravery of Captain Carver among the 
Indian nations, near the Falls of St. Anthony, in 
the Mississippi, gave to said Carver 12,111. 13s. 8d. 
sterling, and ordered a frigate to be prepared, 
and a transport ship to carry one hundred and 
fifty men, under command of Captain Carver, with 
four others as a committee, to sail the next June 
to New Orleans, and then to ascend the Missis- 
sippi, to take possession of said territory conveyed 
to Captain Carver ; but the battle of Bunker Hill 
prevented." 

In 1821, General Leavenworth, having made 
inquiries of the Dahkotahs. in relation to the 
alleged claim, addressed the following to the 
commissioner of the land office : 

" Sir:— Agreeably to your request, I have the 
honour to inform you what I have understood 
from the Indians of the Sioux Nation, as well as 
some facts within my own knowledge, as to what 
is commonly termed Carvers Grant. The grant 
purports U> be made by the chiefs of the Sioux 
of the Plains, and one of the chiefs uses the sign 
of a serpent, and the other of a turtle, purport- 
ing that their names are derived from those ani- 
mals. 

'•The land lies on the east side of the Mississ- 
ippi. The Indians do not recognize or ackuowl 
edge the grant to be valid, and they among others 
assign the following reasons: 

"1. The Sioux of the Plains never owned a 
foot of land on the east side of the Mississippi. 
The Sioux Xation is divided into two grand di- 
visions, viz: The Sioux of the Lake; or perhaps 
more literally Sioux of the River, and Sioux of 
the Plain. The former subsists by hunting and 
fishing, and usually move from place to place by 
water, in canoes, during the summer season, and 
travel on the ice in the winter, when not on 
their hunting excursions. The latter subsist en- 
tirely by hunting, and have no canoes, nor do 
they know but little about the use of them. They 
reside in the large prairies west of the Mississippi, 
and follow the buffalo, upon which they entirely 
subsist; these are called Sioux of the Plain, and 
never owned land east of the Mississippi. 

" 2. The Indians say they have no knowledge 
of any such chiefs as those who have signed the 
grant to Carver, either amongst the Sioux of the 



River or the Sioux of the Plain. They say that 
if Captain Carver did ever obtain a deed or 
grant, it was signed by some foolish young men 
who were not chiefs and who were not author- 
ized to make a grant. Among the Sioux of the 
River there are no such names. 

"3. They say the Indians never received any- 
thing for the land, and they have no intention to 
part with it without a consideration. From my 
knowledge of the Indians, I am induced to think 
they would not make so considerable a grant, and 
have it to go into full effect without receiving a 
substantial consideration. 

'• 4. They have, and ever have had, the pos- 
session of the land, and intend to keep it. I 
know that they are very particular in making 
every person who wishes to cut timber on that 
tract obtain their permission to do so, and to ob- 
tain payment for it. In the mouth of May last, 
some Frenclimen brought a large raft of red cedar 
timber out of the Chippewa River, which timber 
was cut on the tract before mentioned. The In- 
dians at one of the villages on the Mississippi, 
where the principal chief resided, compelled the 
Frenchmen to land the raft, and would not per- 
mit them to pass until they had received pay for 
the timber, and the Frenchmen were compelled 
to leave their raft with the Indians until they 
went to Prairie du Chien, and obtained the nec- 
essary articles, and made the payment required." 

On the twenty-third of January, 1823, the Com- 
mittee of Public Lands made a report on the 
claim to the Senate, which, to every disinterested 
person, is entirely satisfactory. After stating 
the facts of the petition, the report continues: 

" The Rev. Samuel Peters, in his petition, fur- 
ther states that Lefei, the present Emperor of 
the Sioux and Naudowessies, and Red "Wing, a 
sachem, the heirs and successors of the two gmnd 
chiefs who signed the said deed to Captain Car- 
ver, have given satisfactory and positive proof 
that they allowed their ancestors' deed to be gen- 
uine, good, and valid, and that Captain Carver's 
heirs and assigns are the owners of said territory, 
and may occupy it free of all molestation. 

The committee have examined and considered 
the claims thus exhibited by the petitioners, and 
remark that the original deed is not produced, nor 
any competent legal evidence offered of its execu- 
tion ; nor is there any proof that the persons, who 



72 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



it is alleged made the deed, were the chiefs of 
said tribe, nor that (if chiefs) they had authority 
to grant and give away the land belonging to their 
tribe. The paper annexed to the petition, as a 
copy of said deed, has no subscribing witnesses ; 
and it would seem impossible, at this remote pe- 
riod, to ascertain the important fact, that the per- 
sons who signed the deed comprehended and 
understood the meaning and effect of their act. 

" The want of proof as to these facts, would 
interpose in the waj of the claimants insuperable 
difficulties. But, in the opinion of the committee, 
the claim is not such as the United States are 
under any obligation to allow, even if the deed 
were proved in legal form. 

" The British government, before the time when 
the alleged deed bears date, had deemed it pru- 
dent and necessary for the preservation of peace 
with the Indian tribes under their sovereignty, 
protection and dominion, to prevent British sub- 
jects from purchasing lands from the Indians, 
and this rule of policy was made known and en- 
forced by the proclamation of the king of Great 
Britain, of seventh October, 1763, which contains 
an express prohibition. 

" Captain Carver, aware of the law, and'know- 
ing that such a contract could not vest the legal 
title in him, applied to the British government to 
ratify and confirm the Indian grant, and, though 
it was competent for that government then to 
confirm the grant, and vest the title of said land 



in him, yet, from some cause, that government 
did not think proper to do it. 

'• The territory has since become the property 
of the United States, and an Indian grant not 
good against the British government, would ap- 
pear to be not binding udoii the United States 
government. 

" What benefit the British government derived 
from the services of Captain Carver, by. his trav- 
els and residence among the Indians, that gov- 
ernment alone could determine, and alone could 
judge what remuneration those services deserved. 

" One fact appears from the declaration of Mr. 
Peters, in his statement in writing, among the 
papers exhibited, namely, that the British gov- 
ernment did give Captain Carver the sum of one 
thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds 
six shillings and eight pence sterling. To the 
United States, however, Captain Carver rendered 
no services which could be assumed as any equit- 
able ground for the support of the petitioners' 
claim. 

" The committee being of opinion that the 
United States are not bound in law and equity to 
confirm the said alleged Indian grant, recom- 
mend the adoption of the resolution: 

" ' Besolved, That the prayer of the petitioners 
ought not to be granted." ' 

Lord Palmerston stated in 1839, that no trace 
could be found in the records of the British 
office of state papers, showing any ratification of 
the Carver grant. 



EXPLORATIONS BY LIEUTENANT Z. M. PIKE. 



CHAPTER XII. 

EXPLORATION BY THE FIRST UNITED STATES ARMY OFFICER, LIETJTENANT Z. M. PIKE. 



Trading Posts at the beginning of Nineteenth Century.— Sandy Lake Fort. — 
Leech Lake Fort.— William Morrison, before Schoolcraft at Itasca Lake.— Divi- 
sion of Northwest Territory. — Organization of Indiana, Michigan and Upper 
Louisiana. — Notices of Woud, Frazer, Fisher, Cameron, Faribault.— Early 
Traders— Pike's Council at Mouth of Minnesota River— Grant for Military 
Posts.— Encampment at Falls of St. Anthony.— Block House near Swan River. 
—Visit to Sandy and Leech Lakes.— British Flag Shot at and Lowered.— 
Thompson, Topographer of Northwest Company.— Pike at Dickson's Trading 
Post.— Returns to Mendota.— Fails to find Carver's Cave. — Conference with, 
Little Crow. —Cameron sells Liquor to Indians. 

At the beginning of the present century, the 
region now known as Minnesota, contained no 
white men, except a few engaged in the f ur trade. 
In the treaty effected by Hon. John Jay, Great 
Britain agreed to withdraw her troops from all 
posts and places within certain boundary lines. 
on or before the first of June, 1796. but all Brit- 
ish settlers and traders might remain for one 
year, and enjoy all their former privileges, with- 
out being obliged to be citizens of the United 
States of America. 

In the year 1800. the trading posts of Minnesota 
were chiefly held by the Northwest Company, 
and their chief traders resided at Sandy Lake, 
Leech Lake, and Fon du Lac, on St. Louis River. 
In the year 1794, this company built a stockade 
one hundred feet square, on the southeast end of 
Sandy Lake. There were bastions pierced for 
small arms, in the southeast and in the northwest 
corner. The pickets which surrounded the post 
were thirteen feet high. On the north side there 
was a gate ten by nine feet ; on the west side, one 
six by five feet, and on the east side a third gate 
six by five feet. Travelers entering the main 
gate, saw on the left a one story building twenty 
feet square, the residence of the superintendent, 
and on the left of the east gate, a building twenty- 
five by fifteen, the quarters of the voyager.rs. 
Entering the western gate, on the left was a stone 
house, twenty by thirty feet, and a house twenty 
by forty feet, used as a store, and a workshop, 
and a residence for clerks. On the south shore 
of Leech Lake there was another establishment, 
a little larger. The stockade was one hundred . 



and fifty feet square. The main building was 
sixty by twenty-five feet, and one and a half story 
in height, where resided the Director of the fur 
trade of the Fond du Lac department of the North- 
west Company. In the centre was a small store, 
twelve and a half feet square, and near the main 
gate was flagstaff fifty feet in height, from 
which used to float the flag of Great Britain. 

"William Morrison was, in 1802, the trader at 
Leech Lake, and in 1804 he was at Elk Lake, the 
source of the Mississippi, thirty-two years after- 
wards named by Schoolcraft, Lake Itasca. 

The entire force of the Northwest Company, 
west of Lake'Superior, in 1805, consisted of three 
accountants, nineteen clerks, two interpreters, 
eighty-live canoe men, and with them were 
twenty-nine Indian or half-breed women, and 
about fifty children. 
On the seventh of May, 1800,' the Northwest 
J Territory, which included all of the western 
country east of the Mississippi, was divided. 
The portion not designated as Ohio, was organ- 
ized as the Territory of Indiana. 

On the twentieth of December, 1803, the 
province of Louisiana, of which that portion of 
Minnesota west of the Mississippi was a part, 
was officially delivered up by the French, who 
had just obtained it from the Spaniards, accord- 
ing to treaty stipnlations. 

To the transfer of Louisiana by France, after 
twenty days' possession, Spain at first objected ; 
but in 1S04 withdrew all opposition. 

President Jefferson now deemed it an object 
of paramount importance for the United States 
to explore the country so recently acquired, and 
make the acquaintance of the tribes residing 
therein ; and steps were taken for an expedition 
to the upper Mississippi. 

Early in March, 1804, Captain Stoddard, of the 
United States army, arrived at St. Louis, the 
agent of the French Republic, to receive from 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



the Spanish authorities the possession of the 
country, which he ini mediately transferred to the 
United States. 

As the old settlers, on the tenth of March, saw 
the ancient Has of Spain displaced by that of the 
United States, the tears coursed down their 
cheeks. 

On the twentieth of the same month, the terri- 
tory of Upper Louisiana was constituted, com- 
prising the present states of Arkansas, Missouri, 
Iowa, and a large portion of Minnesota. 

On the eleventh of January, 1805, the terri- 
tory of Michigan was organized. 

The first American officer who visited Minne- 
sota, on business of a public nature, was one who 
was an ornament to his profession, and in energy 
and endurance a true representative of the citi- 
zens of the United States. We refer to the 
gallant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a native of 
New Jersey, who afterwards fell in battle at 
York, Upper Canada, and whose loss was justly 
mourned by the whole nation. 

When a young lieutenant, he was ordered by 
General Wilkinson to visit the region now known 
as Minnesota, and expel the British traders who 
were found violating the laWs of the United 
States, and form alliances with the Indians. 
With only a few common soldiers, he was obliged 
to do the work of several men. At times he 
would precede his party for miles to reconnoitre, 
and then he would do the duty of hunter. 

During the day he would perform the part of 
surveyor, geologist, and astronomer, and at night, 
though hungry and fatigued, his lofty enthu- 
siasm kept him awake until he copied the notes, 
and plotted the courses of the day. 

On the 4th day of September, 1805, Pike ar- 
rived at Prairie du Chien, from St. Louis, and 
was politely treated by three traders, all born un- 
der the flag of the United States. One was named 
Wood, another Prazer, a native of Vermont, 
who, when a young man became a clerk of one 
Blakely, of Montreal, and thus became a fur 
trader. The third w^as Henry Pisher, a captain 
of the Militia, and Justice of the Peace, whose 
wife was a daughter of Goutier de Verville. 
Fisher was said to have been a nephew of Pres- 
dent Monroe, and later in life traded at the 
sources of the Minnesofa. One of his daughters 
was the mother of Joseph Eolette, Jr., a mem- 



ber of the early Minnesota Legislative assem- 
blies. On the eighth of the month Lieutenant 
Pike left Prairie du Chien, in twobatteaux, with 
Sergeant Henry Kennerman, Corporals William 
E. Mack and Samuel Bradley, and ten privates. 

At La Crosse, Prazer, of Prairie du Chien, 
overtook him, and at Sandy point of Lake Pepin 
he found a trader, a Scotchman by the name of 
Murdoch Cameron, with his son, and a young 
man named John Eudsdell. On the twonty- 
first he breakfasted with the Kaposia band of 
Sioux, who then dwelt at the marsh below Day- 
ton's Bluff, a few miles below St. Paul. The 
same day he passed three miles from Mendota 
the encampment of J. B. Paribault, a trader and 
native of Lower Canada, then about thirty years 
of age, in which vicinity he continued for more 
than fifty years. He married Pelagie the daugh- 
ter of Francis Kinnie by an Indian woman, 
and his eldest son, Alexander, born soon after 
Pike's visit, was the founder of the town of 
Faribault. 

Arriving at the confluence of the Minnosota 
and the Mississippi Bivers, Pike and his soldiers 
encamped on the Northeast point of the island 
which still bears his name. The next day was 
Sunday, and he visited Cameron, at his trading 
post on the Minnesota Biver, a short distance 
above Mendota. 

On Monday, the 23d of September, at noon, 
he held a Council with the Sioux, under a cover- 
ing made by suspending sails, and gave an ad- 
mirable talk, a portion of which was as follows : 
3 " Brothers, I am happy to meet you here, at 
this council fire which your father has sent me to 
kindle, and to take you by the hands, as our chil- 
dren. We having but lately acquired from the 
Spanish, the extensive territory of Louisiana, our 
general has thought proper to send out a number 
of his warriors to visit all his red children ; to tell 
them his will, and to hear what request they may 
have to make of their father. I am happy the 
choice fell on me to come this road, as I find 
my brothers, the Sioux, ready to listen to my 
words. 

" Brothers, it is the wish of our government to 
establish military posts on the Upper Mississippi, 
at such places as might be thought expedient. I 
have, therefore, examined the country, and have 
pitched on the mouth of the river St. Croix, this 



GEANT OF LAND FROM THE SIOUX. 



7-3 



place, and the Falls of St. Anthony ; I therefore 
wish you to grant to the United States, nine 
miles square, at St. Croix, and at this place, from 
a league below the confluence of the St. Peter's 
and Mississippi, to a leagueabove St. Anthony, 
extending three leagues on each side of the river ; 
and as we are a people who are accustomed to 
have all our acts written down, in order to have 
them handed to our children, I have drawn up a 
form of an agreement, which we will both sign, 
in the presence of the traders now present. After 
we know the terms, we will fill it up, and have it 
read and interpreted to you. 

" Brothers, those posts are intended as a bene- 
fit to you. The old chiefs .now present mast see 
that their situation improves by a communication 
with the whites. It is the intention of the United 
States to establish at those posts factories, in 
which the Indians may procure all their tilings 
at a cheaper and better rate than they do now. or 
than your traders can afford to sell them to you, 
as they aie single men, who come from far in 
small boats; but your fathers are many and 
strong, and will come with a strong arm. in large 
boats. There will also be chiefs here, who can 
attend to the wants of their brothers, without 
their sending or going all the way to St. Louis, 
and will see the traders that go up your rivers, 
and know that they are good men. * * * * 

"Brothers, I now present you with some of 
your father's tobacco, and some other trifling 
things, as a memorandum of my good will, and 
before my departure I will give you some liquor 
to clear your throats." 

The traders, Cameron and Frazer. sat with 
Pike. His interpreter was Pierre llosseau. 
Among the Chiefs present were Le Petit Cor- 
beau (Little Crow), and Way-ago Enagee,*and 
L*Orignal Leve or Rising Moose. It was with 
difficulty that the chiefs signed the following 
agreement; not that they objected to the lan- 
guage, but because they thought their word 
should be taken, without any mark ; but Pike 
overcame their objection, by saying that he wished 
them to sign it on his account. 

"Whereas, at a conference held between the 
United States of America and the Sioux na- 
tion of Indians, Lieutenant Z. M. Pike, of the 
army of the United States, and the chiefs and 
warriors of said tribe, have agreed to the follow- 



ing articles, which, when ratified and approved of 
by the proper authority, shall be binding on both 
parties : 

Art. 1. That the Sioux nation grant unto the 
United States, for the purpose of establishment 
of military posts, nine miles square, at the mouth 
of the St. Croix, also from below the confidence 
of the Mississippi and St. Peter's, up the Missis- 
sippi to include the Falls of St. Anthony, extend- 
ing nine miles on each side of the river ; that the 
Sioux Nation grants to the United States the full 
sovereignty and power over said district forever. 

Akt. 2. That in consideration of the above 
grants, the United States shall pay [filled up by 
the Senate with 2.000 dollars]. 

Akt. 3. The United States promise, on their 
part, to permit the Sioux to pass and repass, hunt, 
or make other use of the said districts, as they 
have formerly done, without any other exception 
than those specified in article first. 

In testimony whereof, we, the undersigned, 
have hereunto set our hands and seals, at the 
mouth of the river St. Peter's, on the 23d day of 
September, 1805. 

Z.M.PIKE, [L. S.] 
1st Lieutenant and agent at the above conference. 

his 

LE PETIT CORBEAU, X [L. S.] 

mark 

his 

WAY-AGO ENAGEE. H [L. S.] 

mark " 

The following entries from Pike's Journal, des- 
criptive of the region around the city of Minne- 
apolis, seventy-five years ago, are worthy of pres- 
ervation: 

"Sept. 26th, Tliursday. — Embarked atthe usual 
hour, and after much labor in passing through 
the rapids, arrived at the foot of the Falls about 
three or four o'clock ; unloaded my boat, and had 
the principal part of her cargo carried over the 
portage. With the other boat, however, full 
loaded, they were not able to get over the last 
shoot, and encamped about six yards below. I 
pitched my tent and encamped above the shoot. 
The rapids mentioned in this day's march, might 
properly be called a continuation of the Falls of 
St. Anthony, for they are equally entitled to this 
appellation, with the Falls of the Delaware and 



76 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



Susquehanna. Killed one deer. Distance nine 
miles 

Sept. 27th, Friday. Brought over the residue 
of my loading this morning. Two men arrived 
froinMr. Frazer, on St. Peters, for my dispatches. 
This business, closing and sealing, appeared like 
a las", adieu to the civilized world. Sent a large 
packet to the General, and a letter to Mrs. Pike, 
with a short note to Mr. Frazer. Two young 
Indians brought my Hag across by land, who ar- 
rived yesterday, just as we came in sight of the 
Fall. I made them a present for their punctual- 
ity and expedition, and the danger they were ex- 
posed to from the journey. Carried our boats out 
of the river, as far as the bottom of the hill. 

Sept. 28th , Saturday.— Brought my barge over, 
and put her in the river above the Falls. While 
we were engaged with her three-fourths miles 
from camp, seven Indians painted black, appeared 
on the heights. We had left our guns at the 
camp and were entirely defenceless. It occurred 
tome that they were the small party of Sioux who 
were obstinate, and would go to war, when the 
other part of the bands came in; these they 
proved to be ; they were better armed than any I 
had ever seen; having guns, bows, arrows, clubs, 
spears, and some of them even a case of pistols. 
I was at that time giving my men a dram ; and 
giving the cup of liquor to the first, he drank it 
off ; but I was more cautious with the remainder. 
I sent my interpreter to camp with them, to wait 
my coming ; wishing to purchase one of their war 
clubs, it being made of elk horn, and decorated 
with inlaid work. This and a set of bows and 
arrows I wished to get as a curiosity. But the 
liquor I had given him began to operate, he came 
back for me, but refusing to go till I brought my 
boat, he returned, and (I suppose being offended) 
borrowed a canoe and crossed the river. In the 
afternoon got the other boat near the top of the 
hill, when the props gave way, and she slid all the 
way down to the bottom, but fortunately without 
injuring any person. It raining very hard, we 
left her. Killed one goose and a racoon. 

Sept. 29th, Sunday.— I killed a remarkably 
large racoon. Got our large boat over the port- 
age, and put her in the river, at the upper land- 
ing ; this night the men gave sufficient proof of 
their fatigue, by all throwing themselves down to 
sleep, preferring rest to supper. This day I had 



but fifteen men out of twenty-two ; the others 
were sick. This voyage could have been per- 
formed with great convenience, if we had taken 
our departure in June. But the proper time 
would be to leave the Illinois as soon as the ice 
would permit, when the river would be of a good 
height. 

Sept. 30th, Monday. — Loaded my boat, moved 
over and encamped on the Island. The large boats 
loading likewise, we went over and put on board. 
In the mean time, I took a survey of the Falls, 
Portage, etc. If it be possible to pass the Falls 
in high water, of which I am doubtful, it must 
be on the East side, about thirty yards from 
shore ; as there are three layers of rocks, one be- 
low the other. The pitch off of either, is not 
more than five feet ; but of this I can say more 
on my return. 

On the tenth of October, the expedition 
reached some arge island below Sauk Rapids, 
where in 1797, Porlier and Joseph Renville had 
wintered. Six days after this, he reached the 
Rapids in Morrison county, which still bears his 
name, and he writes: "When we arose in the 
morning, found that snow had fallen during the 
night, the ground was covered and it continued 
to snow. This, indeed, was but poor encourage- 
ment for attacking the Rapids, in which we were 
certain to wade to our necks. I was determined, 
however, if possible to make la riviere de Cor- 
beau, [Crow Wing River], the highest point was 
made by traders in their bark canoes. We em- 
barked, and after four hours work, became so 
benumbed with cold that our limbs were perfectly 
useless. We put to shore on the opposite side of 
the river, about two-thirds of the way up the 
rapids. Built a large fire ; and then discovered 
that«our boats were nearly half full of water; 
both having sprung large leaks so as to oblige me 
to keep three hands bailing. My sergeant (Ken- 
nerman) one of the stoutest men I ever knew, 
broke a blood-vessel and vomited nearly two 
quarts of blood. One of my corporals (Bradley) 
also evacuated nearly a pint of blood, when he 
attempted to void his urine. These unhappy 
circumstances, in addition to the inability of 
four other men whom we were obliged to leave 
on shore, convinced me, that if I had no regard 
for my own health and constitution, I should 
have some for those poor fellows, who were kill- 



PIKES BLOCK MOUSE NEAR SWAN RIVER. 



77 



ing themselves to obey my orders. After we had 
breakfast and refreshed ourselves, we went down 
to our boats on the rocks, where I was obliged to 
leave them. I then informed my men that we 
would return to the camp and there leave some 
of the party and our large boats. This informa- 
tion was pleasing, and the attempt to reach the 
camp soon accomplished. My reasons for this 
step have partly been already stated. The nec- 
essity of unloading and refitting my boats, the 
beauty and convenience of the spot for building 
huts, the fine pine trees for peroques, and the 
quantity of game, were additional inducements. 
We immediately unloaded our boats and secured 
their cargoes. In the evening I went out upon a 
small, but beautiful creek, which emptied into 
the Falls, for the purpose of selecting pine trees' 
to make canoes. Saw five deer, and killed one 
buck weighing one hundred and thirty-seven 
pounds. By my leaving men at this place, and 
from the great quantities of game in its vicinity, 
I was ensured plenty of provision for my return 
voyage. In the party left behind was one hunter, 
to be continually employed, who would keep our 
stock of salt provisions good. Distance two 
hundred and thirty-three and a half miles above 
the Falls of St. Anthony. 

Having left his large boats and some soldiers 
at this point, he proceeded to the vicinity of 
Swan River where he erected a block house, and 
on the thirty-first of October he writes: ''En- 
closed my little work completely with pickets. 
Hauled up my two boats and turned them over 
on each side of the gateways; by which means 
a defence was made to the river, and had it not 
been for various political reasons, 1 would have 
laughed at the attack of eight hundred or a 
thousand savages, if all my party were within. 
For. except accidents, it would only have afford- 
ed amusement, the Indians having no idea of 
taking a place by storm. Found myself power- 
fully attacked witli the fantastics of the brain, 
called ennui, at the mention of which I had 
hitherto scoffed ; but my books being packed up, 
I was like a person entranced, and could easily 
conceive why so many persons who have been 
confined to remote places, acquire the habit of 
drinking to excess, and many other vicious prac- 
tices, which have been adopted merely to pass 
time. 



During the next month he hunted the buffalo 
which were then in that vicinity. On the third 
of December he received a visit from Eobert 
Dickson, afterwards noted in the history of the 
country, who was then trading about sixty miles 
below, on the Mississippi. 

On the tenth of December with some sleds he 
continued his journey northward, and on the last 
day of the year passed Pine River. On the third 
of January, 1806, he reached the trading post at 
Red Cedar, now Cass Lake, and was quite indig- 
nant at finding the British flag floating from the 
staff. The night after this his tent caught on 
fire, and he lost some valuable and necessary 
clothing. On the evening of the eighth he reach- 
ed Sandy Lake and was hospitably received by 
Grant, the trader in charge. He writes . 

'• Jax. 9th, Thursday. — Marched the corporal 
early, in order that our men should receive 
assurance of our safety and success. He carried 
with him a small keg of spirits, a present from 
Mr. Grant. The establishment of this place was 
formed twelve years since, by the North-west 
Company, and was formerly under the charge of 
a Mr. Charles Brusky. It has attained at present 
such regularity, as to permit the superintendent 
to live tolerably comfortable. They have horses 
they procured from Red River, of the Indians ; 
raise plenty of Irish potatoes, catch pike, suckers, 
pickerel, and white fish in abundance. They 
have also beaver, deer, and moose; but the pro- 
vision they chiefly depend upon is wild oats, of 
which they purchase great quantities from the 
savages, giving at the rate of about one dollar 
and a half per bushel. But fl mr, pork, and salt, 
are almost interdicted to persons not principals 
in the trade. Flour sells at half a dollar ; salt a 
dollar: pork eighty cents; sugar half a dollar ; 
and tea four dollars and fifty cents per pound. 
The sugar is obtained from the Indians, and is 
made from the maple tree." 

He remained at Sandy Lake ten days, and on 
the last day two men of the Northwest Company 
arrived with letters from Fon du Lac Superior, 
one of. which was from Athapuscow, and had 
been since May on the route. 

On the twentieth of January began his journey 
to Leech Lake, which he reached on the first of 
February, and was hospitably received by Hugh 



EXPLOKEKS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



McGillis, the head of the Northwest Company at 

this post. 

A Mr. Anderson, in the employ of Robert 
Dickson, was residing at the west end of the lake. 
While here he hoisted the American flag in the 
tort. The English yacht still flying at the top of 
the flagstaff, he directed the Indians and his sol- 
diers to shoot at it. They soon broke the iron 
pin to which it was fastened, and it fell to the 
ground. He was informed by a venerable old 
Ojibway chief, called Sweet, that the Sioux dwelt 
there when Ire was a youth. On the tenth of 
February, at ten o'clock, he left Leech Lake with 
Corporal Bradley, the trader McGillis and two of 
his men, and at sunset arrived at lied Cedar, now 
Cass Lake. At this place, in 1798, Thompson, 
employed by the Northwest Company for three 
years, in topographical surveys, made some ob- 
servations, lie believed that a line from the 
Lake of the Woods would touch the sources of 
the Mississippi. Pike, at this point, was very 
kindly treated by a Canadian named Roy, and his 
Ojibway squaw. On his return home, he reached 
Clear River on the seventh of April, where he 
found his canoe and men, and at night was at 
Grand Rapids, Dickson's trading post. He talked 
until four o'clock the next morning with this 
person and another trader named Porlier. He 
forbade while there, the traders Greignor [Grig- 
non] and La Jennesse, to sell any more liquor to 
Indians, who had become very drunken and un- 
ruly. On the tenth he again reached the Falls 
of Saint Anthony. He writes in his journal as 
follows : 

April 11th, Friday. — Although it snowed very 
hard we brought over both boats, and descended 
the river to the island at the entrance of the St. 
Peter's. I sent to the chiefs and informed them 
I had something to communicate to them. The 
Fils de Pincho immediately waited on me, and 
informed me that he w r ould provide a place for 
the purpose. About sundown I was sent for and 
introduced into the council-house, where T found 
a great many chiefs of the Sussitongs, Gens de 
Feuilles, and the Gens du Lac. The Yanctongs 
had not yet come down. They were all awaiting 
for my arrival. There were about one hundred 
lodges, or six hundred people; we were saluted 
on our crossing the river with ball as usual. The 
council-house was two large lodges, capable of 



containing three hundred men. In the upper 
were forty chiefs, and as many pipes set against 
the poles, alongside of which I had the Santeur's 
pipes arranged. I then informed them in short 
detail, of my transactions with the Santeurs; but 
my interpreters were not capable of making them- 
selves understood. I was therefore obliged to 
omit mentioning every particular relative to the 
rascal who fired on my sentinel, and of the scoun- 
drel who broke the Fols Avoins' canoes, and 
threatened my life; the interpreters, however, in- 
formed them that I wanted some of their princi- 
pal chiefs to go to St. Louis; and that those who 
thought proper might descend to the prairie, 
where we would give them more explicit infor- 
mation. They all smoked out of the Santeur's 
pipe, excepting three, who were painted black, 
and were some of those who lost their relations 
last winter. I invited the Fils de Pinchow, and 
the son of the Killeur Rouge, to come over and 
sup with me; when Mr. Dickson and myself en- 
deavored to explain what I intended to have said 
to them, could I have made myself understood; 
that at the prairie w r e would have all things ex- 
plained; that I was desirous of making a better 
report of them than Captain Lewis could do from 
their treatment of him. The former of those 
savages was the person who remained around my 
post all last winter, and treated my men so well; 
they endeavored to excuse their people. 

"April 12th, Saturday. — Embarked early. Al- 
though my interpreter had been frequently up the 
river, he could not tell me where the cave (spoken 
of by Carver) could be found ; we carefully 
sought for it, but in vain. At the Indian village, 
a few miles below St. Peter's, we were about to 
pass a few lodges, but on receiving a very partic- 
ular invitation to come on shore, we landed, and 
were received in a lodge kindly; they presented 
us sugar. I gave the proprietor a dram, and was 
about to depart when he demanded a kettle of 
liquor; on being refused, and after I had left the 
shore, he told me he did not like the arrange- 
ments, and that he would go to war this summer. 
I directed the interpreter to tell him that if I 
returned to St. Peter's with the troops, I would 
settle that affair with him. On our arrival at the 
St. Croix, I found the Pettit Corbeau with his 
people, and Messrs. Frazer and Wood. We had 
a conference, when the Pettit Corbeau made 



— . 



CAMERON SELLS LIQUOB TO INDIAN'S. 



79 



many apologies for the misconduct of his people; 
he represented to us the different manners in 
which the young warriors had been inducing him 
to go to war; that he had been much blamed for 
dismissing his party last fall; but that he was de- 
termined to adhere as far as lay in his power to 
our instructions; that he thought it most prudent 
to remain here and restrain the warriors. lie 
then presented me with a beaver robe and pipe, 
and his message to the general. That he was 
determined to preserve peace, and make the road 
clear; also a remembrance of his promised medal. 
I made a reply, calculated to confirm him in his 
good intentions, and assured him that he should 
not be the less remembered by his father, although 
not present. I was informed that, notwithstand- 
ing the instruction of his license, and my par- 
ticular request. Murdoch Cameron had taken 
liquor and sold it to the Indians on the river St. 
Peter's, and that his partner below had been 



equally imprudent. I pledged myself to prose- 
cute them according to law; for they have been 
the occasion of great confusion, and of much 
injury to the other traders. This day met a 
canoe of Mr. Dickson's loaded with provisions, 
under the charge of Mr. Anderson, brother of 
the Mr. Anderson at Leech Lake. He politely 
offered me any provision he had on board (for 
which Mr. Dickson had given me an order), but 
not now being in want, I did not accept of any. 
This day. for the first time, I observed the trees 
beginning to bud, and indeed the climate seemed 
to have changed very materially since we passed 
the Falls of St. Anthony." 

The strife of political parties growing out of 
the French Eevolution, and the declaration of 
war against Great Britain in the year 1S12, post- 
poned the military occupation of the Upper 
Mississippi by the United States of America, for 
several years. 



EXPLORERS AXD PIOXEEES OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE VAI/LEY OF THE TIPPER MISSISSIPPI DURING SECOND "WAR "WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 



Dickson and other traders hostile — American stockade at Prairie du Chien — Fort 
Shelby surrenders to Lt. Col. "William McKay— Loyal traders Provencalle and 
Faribault— Rising Moose or Ono-eyed Sioux— Capt. Bulger evacuates Fort 
McKay— Intelligence of Peace. 

Notwithstanding the professions of friendship 
made to Pike, in the second war with Great Brit- 
ain, Dickson and others were found bearing arms 
against the Republic. 

A year after Pike left Prairie du Chien, it was 
evident, that under some secret influence, the 
Indian tribes were combining against the United 
States. In the year 1809 , Nicholas Jarrot declared 
that the British traders were furnishing the sav- 
ages with guns for hostile purposes. On the first 
of May, 1812, two Indians were apprehended at 
Chicago, who were on their way to meet Dickson 
at Green Bay. They had taken the precaution 
to hide letters in their moccasins, and bury them 
in the ground, and were allowed to proceed after 
a brief detention. Frazer, of Prairie du Chien, 
who had been with Pike at the Council at the 
mouth of the Minnesota River, was at the port- 
age of the "Wisconsin when the Indians delivered 
these letters, which stated that the British flag 
would soon be flying again at Mackinaw. At 
Green Bay, the celebrated warrior,' Black Hawk, 
was placed in charge of the Indians who were to 
aid the British. The American troops at Macki- 
naw were obliged, on the seventeenth of July, 
1812, to capitulate without firing a single gun. 
One who was made prisoner, writes from Detroit 
to the Secretary of War : 

" The persons who commanded the Indians are 
Robert Dickson, Indian trader, and John Askin, 
Jr., Indian agent, and his son. The latter two 
were painted and dressed after the manner 
of the Indians. Those who commanded the 
Canadians are John Johnson, Crawford, Pothier, 
Armitinger, La Croix, Rolette, Pranks, Living- 
ston, and other traders, some of whom were lately 
concerned in smuggling British goods into the 



Indian country, and, in conjunction with others, 
have been using their utmost efforts, several 
months before the declaration of war, to excite 
the Indians to take up arms. The least resist- 
ance from the fort would have been attended 
with the destruction of all the persons who fell 
into the hands of the British, as I have been as- 
sured by some of the British traders," 

On the first of May, 1814, Governor Clark, 
with two hundred men, left St. Louis, to build a 
fort at the junction of the Wisconsin and Missis- 
sippi. Twenty days before he arrived at Prairie 
du Chien, Dickson had started for Mackinaw 
with a band of Dahkotahs and Winnebagoes. 
The place was left in command of Captain Deace 
and the Mackinaw Fencibles. The Dahkotahs 
refusing to co-operate, when the Americans made 
their appearance they fled. The Americans took 
possession of the old Mackinaw house, in which 
they found nine or ten trunks of papers belong- 
ing to Dickson. From one they took the follow- 
ing extract : 

"'Arrived, from below, a few Winnebagoes 
with scalps. Gave them tobacco, six pounds 
powder and six pounds ball.' " 

A fort was immediately commenced on the 
site of the old residence of the late H. L. Dous- 
man, which was composed of two block-houses 
in the angles, and another on the bank of the 
river, with a subterranean communication. In 
honor of the governor of Kentucky it was. named 
" Shelby." 

The fort was in charge of Lieutenant Perkins, 
and sixty rank and file, and two gunboats, each 
of which carried a six-pounder; and several 
howitzers were commanded by Captains Yeiser, 
Sullivan, and Aid-de-camp Kennerly. 

The traders at Mackinaw, learning that the 
Americans had built a fort at the Prairie, and 
knowing that as long as they held possession 
they would be cut off from the trade with the 



LOYALTY OF FARIBAULT AND THE ONE-EYED SIOUX. 



81 



Dahkotahs, immediately raised an expedition to 
capture the garrison. 

The captain was an old trader by the name of 
McKay, and under him was a sergeant of ar- 
tillery, with a brass six-pounder, and three or 
four volunteer companies of Canadian voyageurs, 
officered by Captains Griguon, Kolette and An- 
derson, with Lieutenants Brisbois and Duncan 
Graham, all dressed in red coats, with a number 
of Indians. 

The Americans had scarcely completed their 
rude fortification, before the British force, guid- 
ed by Joseph Kolette, Sr., descended in canoes 
to a point on the Wisconsin, several miles from 
the Prairie, to which they marched in battle 
array. McKay sent a flag to the Fort demanding 
a surrender. Lieutenant Perkins replied that he 
would defend it to the last. 

A fierce encounter took place, in which the 
Americans were worsted. The officer was 
wounded, several men were killed and one of 
their boats captured, so that it became necessary 
to retreat to St. Louis. Fort Shelby after its 
capture, was called Fort McKay. 

Among the traders a few remained loyal, es- 
pecially Provencalle and J. B. Faribault, traders 
among the Sioux. Faribault was a prisoner 
among the British at the time Lieut. Col. Wm. 
McKay was preparing to attack Fort Shelby, and 
he refused to perform any service, Faribault's 
wife, who was at Prairie du Cliien, not knowing 
that her husband was a prisoner in the hands of 
the advancing foe, fled with others to the Sioux 
village, where is now the city of Winona. Fari- 
bault was at length released on parole and re- 
turned to his trading post. 

Pike writes of his flag, that " being in doubt 
whether it had been stolen by the Indians, or had 
fallen overborn d and floated away, I sent for my 
friend the Orignal Leve.'' He also calls the 
Chief, Rising Moose, and gives his Sioux name 
Tahamie. He was one of those, who in 1805, 
signed the agreement, to surrender land at the 
junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers 
to the United States. He had but one eye, 
having lost the other when a boy, belonged to 
the Wapasha band of the Sioux, and proved 
true to the flag which had waved on the day he 
sat in council with Pike. 

In the fall of 1814, with another of the same 
6 



nation, he ascended the Missouri under the pro- 
tection of the distinguished trader, Manual Lisa, 
as far as the Au Jacques or James River, and 
from thence struck across the country, enlisting 
the Sioux in favour of the L T nited States, and at 
length arrived at Prairie du Chien. On his arri- 
val, Dickson accosted him, and inquired from 
whence he came, and what was his business ; at 
the same time rudely snatching his bundle from 
his shoulder, and searching for letters. The 
"one-eyed warrior"' told him that he was from 
St. Louis, and that he had promised the white 
chiefs there that he would go to Prairie du Chien, 
and that he had kept his promise 

Dickson then placed him in confinement in 
Fort McKay, as the garrison was called by the 
British, and ordered him to divulge what infor- 
mation he possessed, or he would put him to 
death. But the faithful fellow r said he would 
impart nothing, and that he was ready for death 
if he wished to kill him. Finding that confine- 
ment had no effect, Dickson at last liberated him. 
He then left, and visited the bands of Sioux on 
the Upper Mississippi, with which he passed the 
winter. When he returned in the spring, Dick- 
son had gone to Mackinaw, and Capt. A. Bulger, 
of the Royal Xew Foundland Regiment, was in 
command of the fort. 

On the twenty-third of May, 1815, Capt. Bul- 
ger, WTote from Fort McKay to Gov. Clark at St. 
Louis: "Official intelligence of peace reached 
me yesterday. I propose evacuating the fort, 
taking with me the guns captured in the fort. * 
* * * I have not the smallest hesitation in 
declaring my decided opinion, that the presence 
of a detachment of British and United Slates 
troops at the same time, would be the means of 
embroiling one party or the other in a fresh rup- 
ture with the Indians, which I presume it is the 
wish of both governments to avoid." 

The next month the " One-Eyed Sioux," with 
three other Indians and a squaw, visited St. Louis, 
and he informed Gov. Clark, that the British 
commander left the cannons in the fort when he 
evacuated, but in a day or two came back, took 
the cannons, and fired the fort with the American 
flag flying, but that he rushed in and saved it 
from being burned. From this time, the British 
flag ceased to float in the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi. 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

LONG'S EXPEDITION, A. D. l817, IN A SIX-OARED SKIFF, TO THE FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 



Carver s Grandsons. — Roque, Sioux Interpreter. — Wapashaw s Village and Its 
Vicinity.— A Sacred Dance.— Indian Village Below Dayton's Bluff.— Carver's 
Cave.— Fountain Cave.— Falls of St. Anthony Described.— Site or a Fort. 

Major Stephen H. Long, of the Engineer Corps 
of the United States Army, learning that there 
was little or no danger to be apprehended from 
the Indians, determined to ascend to the Falls- of 
Saint Anthony, in a six-oared skiff presented to 
him by Governor Clark, of Saint Louis. His 
party consisted of a Mr. Hempstead, a native of 
New London, Connecticut, who had been living 
at Prairie du Chien, seven soldiers, and a half- 
breed interpreter, named Roque. A bark canoe 
accompanied them, containing Messrs. Gun and 
King, grandsons of the celebrated traveler, Jona- 
than Carver. 

On the ninth ot «,uly, 1817, the expedition left 
Prairie du Chien, and on the twelfth arrived at 
" Trempe a l'eau." He writes : 

" When we stopped for breakfast, Mr. Hemp- 
stead and myself ascended a high peak to take a 
view of the country. It is known by the name 
of the Kettle Hill, having obtained this appella- 
tion from the circumstance of its having numer- 
ous piles of stone on its top, most of them 
fragments of the rocky stratifications which 
constitute the principal part of the hill, but some 
of them small piles made by the Indians. These 
at a distance have some similitude of kettles 
arranged along upon the ridge and sides of the 
hill. Trom this, or almost any other eminence in 
its neighborhood, the beauty and grandeur of the 
prospect would baffle the skill of the most inge- 
nious pencil to depict, and that of the most ac- 
complished pen to describe. Hills marshaled 
into a variety of agreeable shapes, some of them 
towering into lofty peaks, while others present 
broad summits embellished with contours and 
slopes in the most pleasing manner ; champaigns 
and waving valleys; forests, lawns, and parks 
alternating with each other; the humble Missis- 



sippi meandering far below, and occasionally 
losing itself in numberless islands, give variety 
and beauty to the picture, while rugged cliffs and 
stupendous precipices here and there present 
themselves as if to add boldness and majesty to 
the scene. In the midst of this beautiful scenery 
is situated a village of the Sioux Indians, on an 
extensive lawn called the Aux Aisle Prairie ; at 
which we lay by for a chort time. On our arrival 
the Indians hoisted two American flags, and we 
returned the compliment by discharging our 
blunderbuss and pistols. They then fired several 
guns ahead of us by way of a salute, after which' 
we landed and were received with much friend- 
ship. The name of their chief is Wauppaushaw, 
or the Leaf, commonly called by a name of the 
same import in French, La Feuille, or La Eye, 
as it is pronounced in English. He is considered 
one of the most honest and honorable of any of 
the Indians, and endeavors to inculcate into the 
minds of his people the sentiments and principles 
adopted by himself. He was not at home at the 
time I called, and I had no opportunity of seeing 
him. The Indians, as I suppose, with the ex- 
pectation that I had something to communicate 
to them, assembled themselves at the place 
where I landed and seated themselves upon the 
grass. I inquired if their chief was at home, 
and was answered in the negative. I then told 
them I should be very glad to see him, but as he 
was absent I would call on him again in a few 
days when I should return. I further told them 
that our father, the new President, wished to ob- 
tain some more information relative to his red 
children, and that I was on a tour to acquire any 
intelligence he might stand in need of. With 
this they appeared well satisfied, and permitted 
Mr. Hempstead and myself to go through their 
village. While I was in the wigwam, one of the 
subordinate chiefs, whose name was Wazzecoota, 
or Shooter from the Pine Tree, volunteered to 



INITIATION OF A WABBIOB BY A SACBED DANCE. 



83 



accompany me up the river. I accepted of his 
services, and he was ready to attend me on the 
tour in a very short time. "When we hove in 
sight the Indians were engaged in a ceremony 
called the Bear Dance; a ceremony which they 
are in the habit of performing when any young 
man is desirous of bringing himself into particu- 
lar notice, and is considered a kind of initiation 
into the state of manhood. I went on to the 
ground where they had their performances, 
which were ended sooner than usual on account 
of our arrival. There was a kind of flag made 
of fawn skin dressed with the hair on, suspended 
on a pole. Upon the flesh side of it were drawn 
certain rude figures indicative of the dream 
which it is necessary the young man should have 
dreamed, before he can be considered a proper 
candidate for this kind of initiation ; with this a 
pipe was suspended by way of sacrifice. Two 
arrows were stuck up at the foot of the pole, 
and fragments of painted feathers, etc., were 
strewed about the ground near to it. These per- 
tained to the religious rites attending the cere- 
mony, which consists in bewailing and self -mor- 
tification, that the Good Spirit may be induced 
to pity them and succor their undertaking. 

"At the distance of two or three hundred 
yards from the flag, is an excavation which they 
call the bear's hole, prepared for the occasion. 
It is about two feet deep, and has two ditches, 
about one foot deep, leading across it at right an- 
gles. The young hero of the farce places himself 
in this hole, to be hunted by the rest of the young 
meu, all of whom on this occasion are dressed in 
their best attire and painted in their neatest style. 
The hunters approach the hole in the direction of 
one of the ditches, and discharge their guns, 
which were previously loaded for the purpose 
with blank cartridges, at the one who acts the 
part of the bear; whereupon he leaps from his 
den, having a hoop in each hand, and a wooden 
lance ; the hoops serving as forefeet to aid him 
in characterizing his part, and his lance to defend 
him from his assailants. Thus accoutred he 
dances roimd the place, exhibiting various feats 
of activity, while the other Indians pursue him 
and endeavor to trap him as he attempts to re- 
turn to his den, to effect which he is privileged to 
use any violence he pleases with impunity against 



his assailants, and even to taking the life of any 
of them. 

" This part of the ceremony is performed three 
times, that the bear may escape from his den 
and return to it again through three of the ave- 
nues communicating with it. On being hunted 
from the fourth or last avenue, the bear must 
make his escape through all hib pursuers, if pos- 
sible, and flee to the woods, wher . he i^ tj remain 
through the day. This, however, is seldom or 
never accomplished, as all the young men exert 
themselves to the utmost in order to trap him. 
When caught, he must retire to a lodge erected for 
his reception in the field, where he is to be se- 
cluded from all society through the day, except 
one of his particular friends whom he is allowed 
to take with him as an attendant. Here he 
smokes and performs various other rites which 
superstition has led the Indians to believe are sa- 
cred. After this ceremony is ended, the young 
Indian is considered qualified to act any part as 
an efficient member of their community. The 
Indian who has the good fortune to catch the 
bear and overcome him when endeavoring to 
make his escape to the woods, is considered a 
candidate for preferment, and is on the first suit- 
able occasion appointed the leader of a small war 
party, in order that he may further have an op- 
portunity to test his prowess and perform more 
essential service in behalf of his nation. It is 
accordingly expected that he will kill some of 
their enemies and return with their scalps. I re- 
gretted very much that I had missed the oppor- 
tunity of witnessing this ceremony, which is 
never performed except when prompted by the 
particular dreams of one or other of the young 
men, who is never complimented twice in the 
same manner on account of his dreams." 

On the sixteenth he approached the vicinity of 
where is now the capital of Minnesota, and 
writes : "Set sail at half past four this morning 
with a favorable breeze. Passed an Indian bury- 
ing ground on our left, the first that I have seen 
surrounded by a fence. In the centre a pole is 
erected, at the foot of which religious rites are 
performed at the burial of an Indian, by the 
particular friends and relatives of the deceased. 
Upon the pole a flag is suspended when any per- 
son of extraordinary merit, or one who is very 
much beloved, is buried. In the enclosure were 



M 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNES07A. 



two scaffolds erected also, about six feet high 
ami six feet square. Upon one Of them were two 
cotl'ms containing dead bodies. Passed a Sioux 
village on our right containing fourteen cabins. 
The name of the chief is the Petit Corbeau, or 
Little Raven. The Indians were all absent on a, 
hunting party rip the River St. Croix, which 
is but a little distance across the country from 
the village. Of this we were very glad, as this 
band are said to be the most notorious beggars 
of all the Sioux on the Mississippi. One of their 
cabins is furnished with loop holes, and is sit- 
uated so near the water that the opposite side 
of the river is within musket-shot range from 
the building. By this means the Petit Corbeau 
is enabled to exercise a command over the pass- 
age of the river and has in some instances com- 
pelled traders to land with their goods, and in- 
duced them, probably through fear of offending 
him, to bestow presents to a considerable amount, 
before he would suffer them to pass. The cabins 
are a kind of stockade buildings, and of a better 
appearance than any Indian dwellings I have 
before met with. 

" Two miles above the village, on the same 
side of the river, is Carver's Cave, at which we 
stopped to breakfast. However interesting it 
may have been, it does not possess that character 
in a very high degree at present. Wo descend- 
ed it with lighted candles to its lower extremity. 
The entrance is very low and about eight feet 
broad, so that a man in order to enter it must be 
completely prostrate. The angle of descent 
within the cave is about 25 deg. The flooring 
is an inclined plane of quicksand, formed of the 
rock in wdiich the cavern is formed. The dist- 
ance from its entrance to its inner extremity is 
twenty-four paces, and the width in the broadest 
part about nine, and its greatest height about 
seven feet. In shape it resembles a bakers's oven. 
The cavern was once probably much more ex- 
tensive. My interpreter informed me that, since 
his remembrance, the entrance was not less 
than ten feet high and its length far greater than 
at present. The rock in which it is formed is 
a very white sandstone, so friable that the frag- 
ments of it will almost crumble to sand when 
taken into the hand. A few yards below the 
mouth of the cavern is a very copious spring of 
fine water issuing from the bottom of the cliff. 



" Five miles above this is the Fountain Cave, 
on the same side of the river, formed in the same 
kind of sandstone but of a more pure and fine 
quality. It is far more curious and interesting 
than the former. The entrance of the cave is a 
large winding hall about one hundred and fifty 
feet in length, fifteen feet in width, and from 
eight to sixteen feet in height, finely arched 
overhead, and nearly perpendicular. Next suc- 
ceeds a narrow passage and difficult of entrance, 
which opens into a moat beautiful circular room, 
finely arched above, and about forty feet in di- 
ameter. The cavern then continues a meander- 
ing course, expanding occasionally into small 
rooms of a circular form. We penetrated about 
one hundred and fifty yards, till our candles 
began to fail us,, when we returned. To beauti- 
fy and embellish the scene, a fine crystal stream 
flows through the cavern, and cheers the lone- 
some dark retreat with its enlivening murmurs. 
The temperature of the water in the cave was 
46 deg., and that of the air 60 deg. Entering 
this cold retreat from an atmosphere of 89 deg. , 
I thought it not prudent to remain in it long 
enough to take its several dimensions and me- 
ander its courses ; particularly as we had to wade 
in water to our knees in many places in order to 
penetrate as far as we went. The fountain sup- 
plies an abundance of water as fine as I ever 
drank. This cavern I was informed by my 
interpreter, has been discovered but a few years. 
That the Indians formerly living in its neighbor- 
hood knew nothing of it till within six years 
past. That it is not the same as that described 
by Carver is evident, not only from this circum- 
stance, but also from the circumstance that in- 
stead of a stagnant pool, and only one accessible 
room of a very different form, this cavern has 
a brook running through it, and at least four 
rooms in succession, one after the other. Car- 
ver's Cave is fast filling up with sand, so that 
no water is now found in it, whereas this, from 
the very nature of the place, must be enlarging, 
as the fountain will carry along with its current 
all the sand that falls into it from the roof and 
sides of the cavern." 

On the night of the sixteenth, he arrived at the 
Falls of Saint Anthony and encamped on the east 
shore just below the cataract. He writes in his 
journal : 



DESCRIPTION OF FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 



85 



"The place where we encamped last night need- 
ed no embellishment to render it romantic in the 
highest degree. The banks on both sides of the 
river are about one hundred feet high, decorated 
with trees and shrubbery of various kinds. The 
post oak, hickory, walnut, linden, sugar tree, 
white birch, and the American box ; also various 
evergreens, such as the pine, cedar, juniper, 
etc., added their embellishments to the scene. 
Amongst the shrubery were the prickly ash, 
plum, and cherry tree, the gooseberry, the black 
and red raspberry, the chokeberry, grape vine, 
etc. There were also various kinds of herbage 
and flowers, among which were the wild paisley. 
rue, spikenard, etc., red and white roses, morning 
glory and various other handsome flowers. A 
few yards below us was a beautiful cascade of 
fine spring water, pouring down from a project- 
ing precipice about one hundred feet hight. On 
our left was the Mississippi hurrying through its 
channel with great velocity, and about three 
quarters of a mile above us. in plain view, was 
the majestic cataract of the Falls of St. Anthony. 
The murmuring of the cascade, the roaring of the 
river, and the thunder of the cataract, all contrib- 
uted to render the scene the most interestingand 
magnifieient of any I ever before witnessed/' 

'•The perpendicular fall of the water at the 
cataract, was stated by Pike in his journal, as six- 
teen and a half feet, which I found to be true by 
actual measurement. To this height, however. 
four or five feet may be added for the rapid des- 
cent which immediately succeeds to the perpen- 
dicular fall within a few yards below. Immedi- 
ately at the cataract the river is divided into two 
parts by an island which extends considerably 
above and below the cataract, and is about five 
hundred yards long. The channel on the right 
side of the Island is about three times the width 
of that on the left. The quauity of water pass- 
ins through them is not, however, in the same 
proportion, as about one-third part of the whole 
passes through the left channel. In the broadest 
channel, just below the cataract, is a small island 
also, about fifty yards in length and thirty in 
breadth. Both of these islands contain the same 
kind of rocky formation as the banks of the river, 
and are nearly as high. Besides these, there are 
immediately at the foot of the cataract, two 
islands of very inconsiderable size, situated in 



the right channel also. The rapids commence 
several hundred yards above the cataract and 
continue about eight miles below. The fall of 
the water, beginning at the head of the rapids, 
and extending two hundred and sixty rods down 
the river to where the portage road commences, 
below the cataract is, according to Pike, fifty- 
eight feet. If this estimate be correct the whole 
fall from the head to the foot of the rapids, is not 
probably much less than one hundred feet. But 
as I had no instrument sufficiently accurate to 
level, where the view must necessarily be pretty 
extensive, I took no pains to ascertain the extent 
of the fall. The mode I adopted to ascertain 
the height of a cataract, was to suspend a line 
and plummet from the table rock on the south 
side of the river, which at the same time had 
very little water passing over it as the river was 
unusually low. The rocky formations at this 
place were arranged in the following order, from 
the surface downward. A coarse kind of lime- 
stone in thin strata containing considerable silex; 
a kind of soft friable stone of a greenish color 
and slaty fracture, probably containing - lime, 
aluminum and silex ; a very beautiful satratifica- 
tion of shell limestone, in thin plates, extremely 
regular in its formation and containing a vast 
n umber of shells, all apparently of the same 
kind. This formation constitutes the Table Kock 
of the cataract. The next in order is a white or 
yellowish sandstone, so easily crumbled that it 
deserves the name of a sandbank rather than that 
of a rock. It is of various depths, from ten to 
fifty or seventy-five feet, and is of the same char- 
acter with that found at the caves before des- 
cribed. The next in order is a soft friable sand- 
stone, of a greenish color, similar to that resting 
upon the shell limestone. These stratifications 
occupied the whole space from the low water 
mark nearly to the top of the bluffs. On the east, 
or rather north side of the river, at the Falls, are 
high grounds, at the distance of half a mile from 
the river, considerably more elevated than the 
bluffs, and of a hilly aspect. 

Speaking of the bluff at the confluence o. Jie 
Mississippi and Minnesota, he writes: "A military 
work of considerable magnitude might be con- 
structed on the point, and might be rendered 
sufficiently secure by occupying the commanding 
height in the rear in a suitable manner, as the 



B6 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



latter would control not only the point, but all 
the neighboring heights, to the full extent of a 
twelve pounder's range. The work on the point 
would be necessary to control the navigation of 
the two rivers. But without the commanding 
work in the rear, would be liable to be greatly 
annoyed from a height situated directly opposite 



on the other side of the Mississippi, which is 
here no more than about two hundred and fifty 
yards wide. This latter height, however, would 
not be eligible for a permanent post, on account 
of the numerous ridges and ravines situated im- 
mediately in its rear." 



EARLY HISTORY OF RED RIVER VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

TH03IAS DOTXGLAS, EARL OF SELKIRK, AND THE RED RrVER VALLEY. 



fcrly travelers to Lake Winnipeg— Earliest Map by the Indian Otchaga— Benin's 
allusion to it— Verendrye's Map— De la Jemeraye's Map— Fort La Reine— Fort 
on Red River abandoned— Origin of name Red Lake— Earl of Selkirk— Ossini- 
boia described— Scotch immigrants at Pemhina— Strife of trading companies— 
Earl of Selkirk visits America— Governor Serople Killed— Romantic life of John 
Tanner, and his son James — Letter relative to Selkirk's tour through Minne- 



The valley of the Red River of the North is 
not only an important portion of Minnesota, but 
has a most interesting history. 

"While there is no evidence that Groselliers, the 
first white man who explored Minnesota, ever 
visited Lake Winnipeg and the Red River, yet he 
met the Assineboines at the head of Lake Supe- 
rior and at Lake Nepigon, while on his way by a 
northeasterly trail to Hudson's Bay, and learned 
something of this region from them, 
i The first person, of whom we have an account, 
"who visited the region, was an Englishman, who 
came in 1692, by way of York River, to "Winni- 
peg. 

Ochagachs, or Otchaga, an intelligent Indian, in 
1728, assured Pierre Gualtier de Varenne, known 
in history as the Sieur Verendrye, while he was 
stationed at Lake Nepigon, that there was a 
communication, largely by water, west of Lake 
Superior, to the Great Sea or Pacific Ocean. The 
rude map, drawn by this Indian, was sent to 
France, and is still preserved. Upon it is marked 
Kamanistigouia, the fort first established by Du 
Luth. Pigeon Paver is called Mantohavagane. 
Lac Sasakanaga is marked, and Rainy Lake is 
named Tecamemiouen. The river St. Louis, of 
Minnesota, is R. fond du L. Superior. The 
French geographer, Bellin, in his " Remarks 
upon the map of North America," published in 
1755, at Paris, alludes to this sketch of Ochagachs, 
and says it is the earliest drawing of the region 
west of Lake Superior, in the Depot de la Marine. 

After this Verendrye, in 1737, drew a map, 
which remains unpublished, which shows Red 
Lake in Northern Minnesota, and the point of 
the Big "Woods in the Red River Valley. There 



is another sketch in the archives of France, 
drawn by De la Jemeraye. He was a nephew of 
Verendrye, and, under his uncle's orders, he was 
in 1731, the first to advance from the Grand 
Portage of Lake Superior, by way of the Nalao- 
uagan or Groselliers, now Pigeon River, to Rainy 
Lake. On this appears Fort Rouge, on the south 
bank of the Assineboine at its junction with the 
Red River, and on the Assineboine, a post estab- 
lished on October 3, 1738, and called Fort La 
Reine. Bellin describes the fort on Red River, 
but asserts that it was abandoned because of its 
vicinity to Fort La Reine, on the north side of 
the Assinneboine, and only about nine miles by 
a portage, from Swan Lake. Red Lake and Red 
River were so called by the early French explo- 
rers, on account of the reddish tint of the waters 
after a storm. 

Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, a wealthy, 
kind-hearted but visionary Scotch nobleman, at 
the commencement of the present century formed 
the design of planting a colony of agriculturists 
west of Lake Superior. In the year 1811 he 
obtained a grant of land from the Hudson Bay 
Company called Ossiniboia, which it seems 
strange has been given up by the people of Man- 
itoba. In the autumn of 1812 a few Scotchmen 
with their families arrived at Pembina, in the 
Red River Valley, by way of Hudson Bay, where 
they passed the winter. In the winter of 1813-14 
they were again at Fort Daer or Pembina. The 
colonists of Red River were rendered very un- 
happy by the strife of rival trading companies. 

In the spring of 1815, McKenzie and Morrison, 
traders of the Northwest company, at Sandy 
Lake, told the Ojibway chief there, that they 
would give him and his band all the goods and 
rum at Leech or Sandy Lakes, if they would an- 
noy the Red River settlers. 

The Earl of Selkirk hearing of the distressed 
condition of his colony, sailed for America, and 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



in the fall of 1815, arrived at New York City. 
Proceeding to Montreal he found a messenger 
who had traveled on foot in mid-winter from the 
Red River by way of Red Lake and Fon du Lac, 
of Lake Superior. He sent back by this man, 
kind messages to the dispirited settlers, but one 
night he was way-laid near Fon.du Lac, and 
robbed of his canoe and dispatches. An Ojib- 
way chief at Sandy Lake, afterwards testified 
that a trader named Grant offered him rum and 
tobacco, to send persons to intercept a bearer of 
dispatches to Red River, and soon the messenger 
was brought in by a negro and some Indians. 

Failing to obtain military aid from the 
British authorities in Canada, Selkirk made an 
engagement with four officers and eighty privates, 
of the discharged Meuron regiment, twenty of 
the De Watteville, and a few of the Glengary 
Fencibles, which had served in the late war with 
the United States, to accompany him to Red 
River. They were to receive monthly wages for 
navigating the boats to Red River, to have lands 
assigned them, and a free passage if they wished 
to return. 

When he reached Sault St. Marie, he received 
the intelligence that the colony had again been 
destroyed, and that Semple, a mild, amiable, but 
not altogether judicious man, the chief governor 
of the factories and territories of the Hudson 
Bay company, residing at Red River, had been 
killed. 

Schoolcraft, in 1832, says he saw at Leech 
Lake, Majegabowi, the man who had killed Gov. 
Semple, after he fell wounded from his horse. 

Before he heard of the death of Semple, the 
Earl of Selkirk had made arrangements to visit 
his colony byway of Fon du Lac, on the St. Louis 
River, and Red Lake of Minnesota, but he now 
changed his mind, and proceeded with his force 
to Fort William, the chief trading post of the 
Northwest Company on Lake Superior ; and ap- 
prehending the principal partners, warrants of 
commitment were issued, and they were forward- 
ed to the Attorney-General of Upper Canada. 

While Selkirk was engaged at Fort William, 
a party of emigrants in charge of Miles McDon- 
nel, Governor, and Captain D'Orsomen, went 
forward to reinforce the colony. At Rainy 
Lake they obtained the guidance of a man who 
had all the characteristics of an Indian, and yet 



had a bearing which suggested a different origin. 
By his efficiency and temperate habits, he had se- 
cured the respect of his employers, and on the Earl 
of Selkirk's arrival at Red River, his attention was 
called to him, and in his welfare he became 
deeply interested. By repeated conversations 
with him, memories of a different kind of exist- 
ence were aroused, and the light of other days 
began to brighten. Though he had forgotten his 
father's name, he furnished sufficient data for 
Selkirk to proceed with a search for his relatives. 
Visiting the United States in 1817, he published 
a circular in the papers of the Western States, 
which led to the identification of the man. 

It appeared from his own statement, and 
those of his friends, that his name was John 
Tanner, the son of a minister of the gospel, win , 
about the year 1790, lived on the Ohio river, near 
the Miami. Shortly after his location there, a 
band of roving Indians passed near the house, 
aud found John Tanner, then a little boy, filling 
his hat with walnuts from under a tree. They 
seized him and fled. The party was led by an 
Ottawa whose wife had lost a son. To compen- 
sate for his death, the mother begged that a boy 
of the same age might be captured. 

Adopted by the band, Tanner grew up an 
Indian in his tastes and habits, and was noted 
for bravery. Selkirk was successful in finding 
his relatives. After twenty-eight years of sepa- 
ration, John Tanner in 1818, met his brother 
Edward near Detroit, and went with him to his 
home in Missouri. He soon left his brother, and 
went back to the Indians. For a time he was 
interpreter for Henry R. Schoolcraft, but became 
lazy and ill-natured, and in 1836, skulking behind 
some bushes, he shot and killed Schoolcraft's 
brother, and fled to the wilderness, where, in 
1847, he died. His son, James, was kindly treat- 
ed by the missionaries to the Ojibways of Minne- 
sota - , but he walked in the footsteps of his father. 
In the year 1851, he attempted to impose upon 
the Fresbyterian minister in Saint Paul, and, 
when detected, called upon the Baptist minister, 
who, believing him a penitent, cut a hole in the 
ice, and received him into the church by immer- 
sion. In time, the Baptists found him out, when 
he became an Unitarian missionary, and, at last, 
it is said, met a death by violence. , 

Lord Selkirk was in the Red River Valley 



EARL OF SELKIRK VISITS SAINT LOUIS. 



so 



during the summer of 1817, and on the eighteenth 
of July concluded a treaty with the Crees and 
Saulteaux, for a tract of land beginning at the 
mouth of the Eed River, and extending along 
the same as far as the Great Forks (now Grand 
Forks) at the mouth of Red Lake River, and 
along the Assinniboine River as far as Musk Rat 
River, and extending to the distance of six miles 
from Fort Douglas on every side, and likewise 
from Fort Daer (Pembina) and also from the 
Great Forks, and in other parts extending to the 
distance of two miles from the banks of the said 
rivers. 

Having restored order and confidence, attend- 
ed by three or four persons he crossed the plains 
to the Minnesota River, and from thence pro- 
ceeded to St. Louis. The Indian agent at 
Prairie du Chien was not pleased with Selkirk's 
trip through Minnesota; and on the sixth of 
February, 1818, wrote the Governor of Illinois 
under excitement, some groundless suspicions : 

•• What do you suppose, sir, has been the re- 
sult of the passage through my agency of this 
British nobleman? Two entire bands, and part 
of a third, all Sioux, have deserted us and joined 
Dickson, who has distributed to them large quan- 
tities of Indian presents, together with flags. 
medals, etc. Knowing this, what must have been 
my feelings on hearing that his lordship had met 
with a favourable reception at St. Louis. The 
newspapers announcing his arrival, and general 
Scottish appearance, all tend to discompose me ; 
believing as I do, that he is plotting with his 
friend Dickson our destruction— sharpening the 
savage scalping knife, and colonizing a tract of 
country, so«remote as that of the Red River, for 
the purpose, no doubt, of monopolizing the fur 
and peltry trade of this river, the Missouri and 
their waters ; a trade of the first importance to 
our Western States and Territories. A courier 
who had arrived a few days since., confirms the 
belief that Dickson is endeavouring to undo what 
I have done, and secure to the British govern- 
ment the affections of the Sioux, and subject the 
Northwest Company to his lordship. * * * 



Dickson, as I have before observed, is situated 
near the head of the St. Peter's, to which place 
he transports his goods from Selkirk's Red River 
establishment, in carts made for the purpose. 
The trip is performed in five days, sometimes 
less. He is directed to build a fort on the high- 
est land between Lac du Traverse and Red River, 
which he supposes will be the established bines. 
This fort will be defended by twenty men, with 
two small pieces of artillery." 

In the year 1820, at Berne, Switzerland, a cir- 
cular was issued, signed, R. May D'TJzistorf, 
Captain, in his Britannic Majesty's service, and 
agent Plenipotentiary to Lord Selkirk. Like 
many documents to induce emigration, it was so 
highly colored as to prove a delusion and a 
snare. The climate was represented as "mild 
and healthy." " "Wood either for building or 
fuel in the greatest plenty," and the country 
supplying " in profusion, whatever can be re- 
quired for the convenience, pleasure or comfort 
of lire." Remarkable statements considering 
that every green thing had been devoured the 
year before by grasshoppers. 

Under the influence of these statements, a num- 
ber were induced to embark. In the spring of 
1821, about two hundred persons assembled on 
the banks of the Rhine to proceed to the region 
Avest of Lake Superior. Having descended the 
Rhine to the vicinity of Rotterdam, they went 
aboard the ship "Lord Wellington," and after a 
voyage across the Atlantic, and amid the ice- 
floes of Hudson's Bay. they reached York Fort. 
Here they debarked, and entering batteaux, as'- 
cended Xelson River for twenty days, when they 
came to Lake "Winnipeg, and coasting along the 
west shore they reached the Red River of the 
North, to feel that they had been deluded, and 
to long for a milder clime. If they did not sing 
the Switzer's Song of Home, they appreciated its 
sentiments, and gradually these immigrants re- 
moved to' the banks of the Mississippi River. 
Some settled in Minnesota, and were the first t<: 
raise cattle, and till the soil. 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



FORT SNEXi/LNGr DURING ITS OCCUPANCY BY COMPANIES OF THE FIFTH REGIMENT IT. S. INFANTRY, 
A. D. 1819, TO A. D. 1827. 



Orders for military occupation of Upper Mississippi— Leavenworth and Forsyth 
at Prairie du Chien— Birth in Camp— Troops arrive at Mendota — Cantonment 
Established— Wheat carried to Pembina— Notice of Devotion, Prescott, and 
Major Taliaferro— Camp Cold Water Established— Col. Snelling takes command 
—Impressive Scene— Officers in 1820— Condition of the Fort in 1821— Saint 
Anthony Mill— Alexis Bailly takes cattle to Pembina— Notice of Beltrami— 
Arrival of first Steamboat— Major Long's Expedition to Northern Boundary- 
Beltrami visits the northern sources oi'the Mississippi— First flour mill— First 
Sunday School— Great flood in 1826. African slaves at the Fort— Steamboat 
Arrivals — Duels— Notice of William Joseph Snelling — Indian fight at the Fort- 
Attack upon keel boats— General Gaines' report— Removal of Fifth Regiment- 
Death of Colonel Snelling. 

The rumor that Lord Selkirk was founding a 
colony on the borders of the United States, and 
that the British trading companies within the 
boundaries of what became the territory of Min- 
nesota, convinced the authorities at Washington 
of the importance of a military occupation of the 
valley of the Upper Mississippi. 

By direction of Major General Brown, the fol- 
lowing order, on the tenth of February, 1819, was 
issued : 

" Major General Macomb, commander of the 
Fifth Military department, will without delay, 
concentrate at Detroit the Fifth Regiment of In- 
fantry, excepting the recruits otherwise directed 
by the general order herewith transmitted. As 
soon as the navigation of the lakes will admit, he 
will cause the regiment to be transported to Fort 
Howard; from thence, by the way of the Fox 
and Wisconsin Rivers, to Prairie du Chien, and, 
after detaching a sufficient number of companies 
to garrison Forts Crawford and Armstrong, the 
remainder will proceed to the mouth of the River 
St. Peter's, where they will establish a post, at 
which the headquarters of the regiment will be 
located. The regiment, previous to its depar- 
ture, will receive the necessary supplies of cloth- 
ing, provisions, arms, and ammunition. Imme- 
diate application will be made to Brigadier Gen- 
eral Jesup, Quartermaster General, for funds 
necessary to execute the movements required by 
this order." 

On the thirteenth of April, this additional order 
was issued, at Detroit ; "~" ■> 



"The season having now arrived when the 
lakes may be navigated with safety, a detach- 
ment of the Fifth Regiment, to consist of Major 
Marston's and Captain Fowle's companies, under 
the command of Major Muhlenburg, will proceed 
to Green Bay. Surgeon's Mate, R. M. Byrne, of 
the Fifth Regiment, will accompany the detach- 
ment. The Assistant Deputy Quartermaster 
General will furnish the necessary transport, and 
will send by the same opportunity two hundred 
barrels of provisions, which he will draw from the 
contractor at this post. The provisions must be 
examined and inspected, and properly put up for 
transportation. Colonel Leavenworth will, with- 
out delay, prepare his regiment to move to the 
post on the Mississippi, agreeable to the Divi- 
sion order of the tenth of February. The Assist- 
ant Deputy Quartermaster General will furnish 
the necessary transportation, to be ready by the 
first of May next. The Colonel will make requi- 
sition for such stores, ammunition, tools and 
implements as may be required, and he be able to 
take with him on the expedition. Particular in- 
structions will be given to the Colonel, explaining 
the objects of his expedition." 

EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1819. 

On Wednesday, the last day of June, Col. Leav- 
enworth and troops arrived from Green Bay, at 
Prairie du Chien. Scarcely had they reached 
this point when Charlotte Seymour, the wife of 
Lt. Nathan Clark, a native of Hartford, Ct., 
gave birth to a daughter, whose first baptismal 
name was Charlotte, after her mother, and the 
second Ouisconsin, given by the officers in view 
of the fact that she was born at the junction of 
that stream with the Mississippi. 

In time Charlotte Ouisconsin married a young 
Lieutenant, a native of Princeton, New Jersey, 
and a graduate of West Point, and still resides 
with her husband, General H. P. Van Cleve, in 






COL. LEAVENWORTH ABBIVES AT MENDOTA 



91 



the city of Minneapolis, living to do good as she 
has opportunity. 

In June, under instructions from the War 
Department, Major Thomas Forsyth, connected 
with the office of Indian affairs, left St. Louis 
-with two thousand dollars worth of goods to be 
distributed among the Sioux Indians, in accor- 
dance with the agreement of 1805, already re- 
ferred to, by the late General Pike. 

About nine o'clock of the morning of the fifth 
of July, he joined Leavenworth and his command 
at Prairie du Chien. Some time was occupied by 
Leavenworth awaiting the arrival of ordnance, 
provisions and recruits, but on Sunday morning, 
the eighth of August, about eight o'clock, the 
expedition set out for the point now known as 
Mendota. The flotilla was quite imposing ; there 
were the Colonel's barge, fourteen batteaux with 
ninety-eight soldiers and officers, two large canal 
or Mackinaw boats, filled with various stores, and 
Porsyth's keel boat, containing goods and pres- 
ents for the Indians. On the twenty-third of 
August, Forsyth reached the mouth of the Min- 
nesota with his boat, and the next morning Col. 
Leavenworth arrived, and selecting a place at 
Mendota, near the present railroad bridge, he 
ordered the soldiers to cut down trees and make 
a clearing. On the next Saturday Col. Leaven- 
worth, Major Vose, Surgeon Purcell, Lieutenant 
Clark and the wife of Captain Gooding ivited 
the Falls of Saint Anthony with Forsyth, in 
his keel boat. 

Early in September two more boats and a bat- 
teaux, with officers and one hundred and twenty 
recruits, arrived. 

During the winter of 1820,Laidlow and others, 
in behalf of Lord Selkirk's Scotch settlers at 
Pembina, whose crops had been destroyed by 
grasshoppers, passed the Cantonment, on their 
way to Prairie du Chien, to purchase wheat. 
Upon the fifteenth of April they began their 
return with their Mackinaw boats, each loaded 
with two hundred bushels of wheat, one hundred 
of oats, and thirty of peas, and reached the mouth 
of the Minnesota early in May. Ascending this 
stream to Big Stone Lake, the boats were drawn 
on rollers a mile and a half to Lake Traverse, 
and on the third of June arrived at Pembina and 
cheered the desponding and needy settlers of the 
Selkirk colony. 



The first sutler of the post was a Mr. Devotion. 
He brought with him a young man named Phi- 
lander Prescott, who was born in 1S01, at Phelps- 
town, Ontario county, New York. At first they 
stopped at Mud Hen Island, in the Mississippi 
below the mouth of the St. Croix River. Coming 
up late in the year 1819, at the site of the pres- 
ent town of Hastings they found a keel-boat 
loaded with supplies for the cantonment, in charge 
of Lieut. Oliver, detained by the ice. 

Amid all the changes of the troops, Mr. Pres- 
cott remained nearly all his life in the vicinity of 
the post, to which he came when a mere lad, and 
was at length killed in the Sioux Massacre. 

EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1820 

In the spring of 1820, Jean Baptiste Faribault 
brought up Leavenworth's horses from Prairie 
du Chien. 

The first Indian Agent at the post was a former 
army officer, Lawrence Taliaferro, pronounced 
Toliver. As he had the confidence of the Gov- 
ernment for twenty-one successive years, he is 
deserving of notice. 

His family was of Italian origin, and among 
the early settlers of Virginia. He was born in 
1794, in King "William county in that State, and 
when, in 1812, war was declared against Great 
Britain, with four brothers, he entered the army, 
and was commissioned as Lieutenant of the 
Thirty-fifth Infantry. He behaved gallantly at 
Fort Erie and Sackett's Harbor, and after peace 
was declared, he was retained as a First Lieuten- 
ant of the Third Infantry. In 1816 he was sta- 
tioned at Fort Dearborn, now the site of Chicago. 
"While on a furlough, he called one day upon 
President Monroe, who told him that a fort would 
be built near the Falls of Saint Anthony, and an 
Indian Agency "established, to which he offered 
to appoint him. His commission was dated 
March 27th, 1819, and he proceeded in due time 
to his post. 

On the fifth day of May, 1820, Leavenworth 
left his winter quarters at Mendota, crossed the 
stream and made a summer camp near the 
present military grave yard, which in consequence 
of a fine spring has been called " Camp Cold 
"Water." The Indian agency, under Taliaferro, - 
remained for a time at the old cantonment. 

The commanding officer established a fine 



18 



EXPLOBEIiS AND PIONEERS OF 3IINNES0TA. 



garden in the bottom lands of the Minnesota, 
and on the fifteenth of June the earliest garden 
peas were eaten. The first distinguished visitors 
at the new encampment were Governor Lewis 
Cass, of .Michigan, and Henry Schoolcraft, who 
arrived in July, by way of Lake Superior and 
Sandy Lake. 

The relations between Col. Leavenworth and 
Indian Agent Taliaferro were not entirely har- 
monious, growing out of a disagreement of views 
relative to the treatment of the Indians, and on 
the day of the arrival of Governor Cass, Tel- 
iaferro writes to Leavenworth : 

•■ As it is now understood that I am agent for 
Indian affairs in this country, and you are about 
to leave the upper Mississippi, in all probability 
hi the course of a month or two, I beg leave to 
suggest, for the sake of a general understanding 
with the Indian tribes in this country, that any 
medals, you may possess, would by being turned 
over to me, cease to be a topic of remark among 
the different Indian tribes under my direction. 
I will pass to you any voucher that may be re- 
quired, and I beg leave to observe that any pro- 
gress in influence is much impeded in conse- 
quence of this frequent intercourse with the gar- 
rison." 

In a few days, the disastrous effect of Indians 
mingling with the soldiers was exhibited. On 
the third of August, the agent wrote to Leaven- 
worth: 

" His Excellency Governor Cass during his 
visit to this post remarked to me that the Indians 
jn this quarter were spoiled, and at the same 
time said they should not be permitted to enter 
the camp. Air unpleasant affair has lately taken 
place ; I mean the stabbing of the old chief 
Mahgossau by his comrade. This was caused, 
doubtless, by an anxiety to obtain the chief's 
whiskey. I beg, therefore, that no whiskey 
whatever be given to any Indians, unless it be 
through their proper agent. While an overplus 
of whiskey thwarts the benificent and humane 
policy of the government, it entails misery upon 
the Indians, and endangers their lives." 

A few days after this note was written Josiah 
Snelling, who had been recently promoted to the 
Colonelcy of the Fifth Eegiment, arrived with 
his family, relieved Leavenworth, and infused 
new life and energy. A little while before his 



arrival, the daughter of Captain Gooding was 
married to Lieutenant Green, the Adjutant of 
the regiment, the first marriage of white persons 
hi Minnesota. Mrs. Snelling, a few days after 
her arrival, gave birth to a daughter, the first 
white child born in Minnesota, and after a brief 
existence of thirteen months, she died and was 
the first interred in the military grave yard, and 
for years the fctone which marked its resting, 
place, was visible. 

The earliest manuscript in Minnesota, written 
at the Cantonment, is dated October 4, 1820, and 
is in the handwriting of Colonel Snelling. It 
reads : " In justice to Lawrence Taliaferro, Esq., 
Indian Agent at this post, we, the undersigned, 
officers of the Fifth Eegiment here stationed, 
have presented him this paper, as a token, not 
only of our individual respect and esteem, but as 
an entire approval of his conduct and deportment 
as a public agent in this quarter. Given at St. 
Peter, this 4th day of October, 1820. 



J. Snelling, 

Col. 5th Inf. 
S. Btjrbank, 

Br. Major. 
David Perry, 
Captain. 

D. Gooding, 
Brevet Captain. 

J. Plympton, 

Lieutenant. 

E. A. McCabe, 

Lieutenant. 



H". Clark, 

Lieutenant. 
Jos. Hare, 

Lieutenant. 
Ed. Purcell, 

Surgeon, 
P. E. Green, 

Lieut, and Adjt. 
W. G. Camp, 

Lt. and Q. M. 
H. "Wilkins, 

Lieutenant." 



During the summer of 1820, a party of the 
Sisseton Sioux killed on the Missouri, Isadore 
Poupon, a half-breed, and Joseph Andrews, a 
Canadian engaged in the fur trade. The Indian 
Agent, through Colin Campbell, as interpreter, 
notified the Sissetons that trade would cease 
with them, until the murderers were delivered. 
At a council held at Big Stone Lake, one of the 
murderers, and the aged father of another, agreed 
to surrender themselves to the commanding 



On the twelfth of November, accompanied by 
their friends, they approached the encampment 
in solemn procession, and marched to the centre 
of the parade. Eirst appeared a Sisseton bear- 
ing a British flag ; then the murderer and the de- 
voted father of another, their arms pinioned, and 



_-r 



— 



ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



large wooden splinters thrust through the flesh 
above the elbows indicating their contempt for 
pain and death ; in the rear followed friends and 
relatives, with them chanting the death dirge. 
Having arrived in front of the guard, fire was 
kindled, and the British flag burned; then the 
murderer delivered up his medal, and both prison- 
ers were surrounded. Col. Snelling detained the 
old chief, while the murderer was sent to St. 
Louis for trial. 

EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1821. 

Col. Snelling built the fort in the shape of a 
lozenge, in view of the projection between the 
two rivers. The first row of barracks was of 
hewn logs, obtained from the pine forests of Bum 
River, but the other buildings were of stone. 
Mrs. Van Cleve, the daughter of Lieutenant, 
afterwards Captain Clark, writes : 

•• In 1S21 the fort, although not complete, was 
fit for occupancy. My father had assigned to 
him the quarters next beyond the steps leading 
to the Commissary's stores, and during the year 
my little sister Juliet was born there. At a later 
period my father and Major Garland obtained 
permission to build more commodious quarters 
outside the walls, and the result was the two 
stone houses afterwards occupied by the Indian 
Agent and interpreter, lately destroyed." 

Early in August, a young and intelligent mixed 
blood, Alexis Bailly. in after years a member of 
the legislature of Minnesota, left the cantonment 
with the first drove of cattle for the Selkirk Set- 
tlement, and the next winter returned with Col. 
Robert Dickson and Messrs. Laidlow and Mac- 
kenzie. 

The next month, a party of gissetons visited 
the Indian Agent, and told him that they had 
started with another of the murderers, to which 
reference has been made, but that on the way he 
had, through fear of being hung, killed himself. 

This fall, a mill was constructed for the use of 
the garrison, on the west side of St. Anthony 
Falls,under the supervision of Lieutenant McCabe. 
During the fall, George Gooding, Captain by 
brevet, resigned, and became Sutler at Prairie du 
Chien. He was a native of Massachusetts, and 
entered the army as ensign in 1808. In 1810 he 
became a Second Lieutenant, and the next year 
was wounded at Tippecanoe. 



In the middle of October, there embarked on 
the keel-boat " Saucy Jack," for Prairie du Chien, 
Col. Snelling, Lieut. Baxley, Major Taliaferro, 
I and Mrs. Gooding, 

EVENTS OF 1822 AND 1823. 

Early in January, 1822, there came to the Fort 
from the Red River of the North, Col. Robert 
Dickson, Laidlow, a Scotch farmer, the superin- 
tendent of Lord Selkirk's experimental farm, and 
one Mackenzie, on their way to Prairie du Chien. 
Dickson returned with a drove of cattle, but 
owing to the hostility of the Sioux his cattle were 
scattered, and never reached Pembina. 

During the winter of 1823, Agent Taliaferro 
was in Washington. While returning in March, 
he was at a hotel in Pittsburg, when he received 
a note signed G. C. Beltrami, who was an Italian 
exile, asking permission to accompany him to the 
Indian territory. He was tall and commanding 
in appearance, and gentlemanly in bearing, and 
Taliaferro was so forcibly impressed as to accede 
to the request. After reaching St. Louis they 
embarked on the first steamboat for the Upper 
Mississippi. 

It was named the Virginia, and wa a built in 
Pittsburg, twenty-two feet in width, and one 
hundred and eighteen feet in length, in charge of 
a Captain Crawford. It reached the Fort on the 
tenth of May. and was saluted by the discharge 
of cannon. Among the passengers, besides the 
Agent and the Italian, were Major Biddle, Lieut. 
Russell, and others. 

The arrival of the Virginia is an era in the 
history of the Dahkotah nation, and will proba- 
bly be transmitted to their posterity as long as 
they exist as a people. They say their sacred 
men. the night before, dreamed of seeing some 
monster of the waters, which frightened them 
very much. 

As the boat neared the shore, men, women, 
and children beheld with silent astonishment, 
supposing that it was some enormous Avater-spirit, 
coughing, puffing out hot breath, and splashing 
water in every direction. When it touched the 
landing their fears prevailed, and they retreated 
some distance ; but when the blowing off of 
steam commenced they were completely un- 
nerved : mothers forgetting their children, with 
streaming hair, sought hiding-places ; chiefs, re- 



04 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



counting their stoicism, scampered away like 
affrighted animals. 

The peace agreement heteen the Ojibways and 
Dahkotahs, made through the influence of Gov- 
ernor Cass, was of brief duration, the latter be- 
ing the first to violate the provisions. 

On the fourth of June, Taliaferro, the Indian 
agent among the Dahkotahs, took advantage of 
the presence of a large number of Ojibways to 
renew the agreement for the cessation of hostili- 
ties. The council hall of the agent was a large 
room of logs, in which waved conspicuously the 
flag of the United States, surrounded by British 
colors and medals that had been delivered up 
from time to time by Indian chiefs. 

Among the Dahkotah chiefs present were 
Wapashaw, Little Crow, and Penneshaw ; of the 
Ojibways there were Kendouswa, Moshomene, 
and Pasheskonoepe. After mutual accusations 
and excuses concerning the infraction of the pre- 
vious treaty, the Dahkotahs lighted the calumet, 
they having been the first to infringe upon the 
agreement of 1820. After smoking and passing 
the pipe of peace to the Ojibways, who passed 
through the same formalities, they all shook 
hands as a pledge of renewed amity. 

The morning after the council, Plat Mouth, 
the distinguished Ojibway chief, arrived, who 
had left his lodge vowing that he would never be 
at peace with the Dahkotahs. As he stepped from 
his canoe, Penneshaw held out his hand, but was 
repulsed with scorn. The Dahkotah warrior 
immediately gave the alarm, and in a moment 
runners were on their way to the neighboring 
villages to raise a war party. 

On the sixth of June, the Dahkotahs had assem- 
bled, stripped for a fight, and surrounded the 
Ojibways. The latter, fearing the worst, con- 
cealed their women and children behind the old 
barracks which had been used by the troops while 
the fort was being erected. At the solicitation of 
the agent and commander of the fort, the Dahko- 
tahs desisted from an attack and retired. 

On the seventh, the Ojibways left for their 
homes; but, in a few hours, while they were 
making a portage at Palls of St. Anthony, they 
were again approached by the Dahkotahs, who 
would have attacked them, if a detachment of 
troops had not arrived from the fort. 

A rumor reaching Penneshaw's village that he 



had been killed at the falls, his mother seized an 
Ojibway maiden, who had been a captive from 
infancy, and, with a tomahawk, cut her in two. 
Upon the return of the son in safety he was much 
gratified at what he considered the prowess of 
his parent. 

On the third of July, 1823, Major Long, of the 
engineers, arrived at the fort in command of an 
expedition to explore the Minnesota Eiver, and 
the region along the northern boundary line of 
the United States. Beltrami, at the request of 
Col. Snelling, was permitted to be of the party, 
and Major Taliaferro kindly gave him a horse 
and equipments. 

The relations of the Italian to Major Long were 
not pleasant, and at Pembina Beltrami left the 
expedition, and with a " bois brule ", and two 
Ojibways proceeded and discovered the northern 
sources of the Mississippi, and suggested where 
the western sources would be found ; which was 
verified by Schoolcraft nine years later. About 
the second week in September Beltrami returned 
to the fort by way of the Mississippi, escorted by 
forty or fifty Ojibways, and on the 25th departed 
for New Orleans, where he published his discov- 
eries in the French language. 

The mill which was constructed in 1821, for 
sawing lumber, at the Palls of St. Anthony, stood 
upon the site of the Holmes and Sidle Mill, in 
Minneapolis, and in 1823 was fitted up for grind- 
ing flour. The following extracts from corres- 
pondence addressed to Lieut. Clark, Commissary 
at Port Snelling, will be read with interest. 

Under the date of August 5th, 1823, General 
Gibson writes : " Prom a letter addressed by 
Col. Snelling to the Quartermaster General, 
dated the 2d of April, I learn that a large quan- 
tity of wheat would be raised this summer. The 
assistant Commissary of Subsistence at St. Louis 
has been instructed to forward sickles and a pair 
of millstones to St. Peters. If any flour is manu- 
factured from the wheat raised, be pleased to let 
me know as early as practicable, that I may deduct 
the quantity manufactured at the post from the 
quantity advertised to be contracted for." 

In another letter, General Gibson writes : 
" Below you will find the amount charged on the 
books against the garrison at Pt. St. Anthony, 
for certain articles, and forwarded for the use of 
the troops at that post, which you will deduct 



FIRST FLOUR MILL IN MINNESOTA. 



95 



from the payments to be made for flour raised 
and turned over to you for issue : 

One pair buhr millstones $250 11 

337 pounds plaster of Paris 20 22 

Two dozen sickles 18 00 

Total ...$288 33 

Upon the 19th of January, 1824, the General 
writes: " The mode suggested by Col. Snelling, 
of fixing the price to be paid to the troops for the 
flour furnished by them is deemed equitable and 
just. You will accordingly pay for the flour 
S3.33 per barrel." 

Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve, now the oldest 
person living who was connected with the can- 
tonment in 1819, in a paper read before the De- 
partment of American History of the Minnesota 
Historical Society in January, 1880, wrote : 

" In 1823, Mrs. Snelling and my mother estab- 
lished the first Sunday School in the Northwest 
It was held in the basement of the commanding 
officer's quarters, and was productive of much 
good. Many of the soldiers, with their families, 
attended. Joe. Brown, since so well know in 
this country, then a drummer boy, was one of 
the pupils. A Bible class, for the officers and 
their wives, was formed, and all became so inter- 
ested in the history of the patriarchs, that it fur- 
nished topics of conversation for the week. One 
day after the Sunday School lesson on the death of 
Moses, a member of the class meeting my mother 
on the parade, after exchanging the usual greet- 
ings, said, in saddened tones, ' But don't you feel 
sorry that Moses is dead ? ' 

Early in the spring of 1824. the Tully boys 
were rescued from the Sioux and brought to the 
fort. They were children of one of the settlers 
of Lord Selkirk's colony, and with their parents 
and others, were on their way from Red River 
Valley to settle near Fort Snelling. 

The party was attacked by Indians, and the 
parents of these children murderedfand the boys 
captured. Through the influence of Col. Snell- 
ing the children were ransomed and brought 
to the fort. Col. Snelling took John and 
my father Andrew, the younger of the two. 
Everyone became interested in the orphans, and 
we loved Andrew as if he had been our own lit- 
tle brother. John died some two years after his 
arrival at the fort, and Mrs. Snelling asked me 



when I last saw her if a tomb stone had been 
placed at his grave, she as requested, during a 
visit to the old home some years ago. She said 
she received a promise that it should be done, 
and seemed quite disappointed when I told her it 
had not been attended to." 

Andrew Tully, after being educated at an 
Orphan Asylum in New York City, became a 
carriage maker, and died a few years ago in that 
vicinity. 

EVENTS OF THE YEAR A. D. 1824. 

In the year 1824 the Fort was visited by Gen. 
Scott, on a tour of inspection, and at his sug- 
gestion, its name was changed from Fort St. 
Anthony to Fort Snelling. The following is an 
extract from his report to the War Department : 

" This work, of which the War Department is 
in possession of a plan, reflects the highest credit 
on Col. Snelling, his officers and men. The de- 
fenses, and for the most part, the public store- 
houses, shops and quarters being constructed of 
stone, the whole is likely to endure as long as the 
post shall remain a frontier one. The cost of 
erection to the government has been the amount 
paid for tools and iron, and the per diem paid 
to soldiers employed as mechanics. I wish to 
suggest to the General in Chief, and through him 
to the War Department, the propriety of calling 
this work Fort Snelling, as a just compliment 
to the meritorious officer under whom it has 
been erected. The present name, (Fort St. An- 
thony), is foreign to all our associations, and is, 
besides, geographically incorrect, as the work 
stands at the junction of the Mississippi and 
St. Peter's [Minnesota] Rivers, eight miles be- 
low the great falls of the Mississippi, called 
after St. Anthony." 

In 1824, Major Taliaferro proceeded to Wash- 
ington with a delegation of Chippeways and Dah- 
kotahs, headed by Little Crow, the grand father 
of the chief of the same name, who was engaged 
in the late horrible massacre of defenceless 
women and children. The object of the visit, was 
to secure a convocation of all the tribes of the 
Upper Mississippi, at Prairie du Chein, to define 
their boundary lines and establish friendly rela- 
tions. When they reached Prairie du Chein, 
Wahnatah, a Yankton chief, and also Wapashaw, 
by the whisperings of mean traders, became dis- 



EXPLOREP.S AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



affected, and wished to turn back. Little Crow, 
perceiving tins, stopped all hesitancy by the fol. 

lOWing speech: -.My friends, you can do as you 

please. I am no coward, nor can my ears be 
pulled about by evil counsels. "We are here and 
should go on, and do some good for our nation. 
I have taken our Father here (Taliaferro) by the 
coat tail, and will follow him until I take by the 
hand, our great American Father." 

While on board of a steamer on the Ohio 
River, Marcpee or the Cloud, in consequence of a 
bad dream, jumped from the stern of the boat, 
and was supposed to be drowned, but he swam 
ashore and made his way to St. Charles, Mo., 
there to be murdered by some Sacs. The re- 
mainder safely arrived in AVashington and ac- 
complished the object of the visit. The Dahko- 
tahs returned by way of New York, and while 
there were anxious to pay a visit to certain par- 
ties with Wm. Dickson, a half-breed son of Col 
Robert Dickson, the trader, who in the war of 
1812-1-5 led the Indians of the Northwest against 
the United States. 

After this visit Little Crow carried a new 
double-barreled gun, and said that a medicine 
man by the name of Peters gave it to him for 
signing a certain paper, and that he also prom- 
ised he would send a keeFboat full of goods to 
them. The medicine man referred to was the 
Hev. Samuel Peters, an Episcopal clergyman, 
who had made himself obnoxious during the 
Revolution by his tory sentiments, and was sub- 
sequently nominated as Bishop of Vermont. 

Peters asserted that in 1806 he had purchased 
of the heirs of Jonathan Carver the right to a 
tract of land on the upper Mississippi, embracing 
St. Paul, alleged to have been given to Carver by 
the Dahkotahs, in 1767. 

The next year there arrived, in one of the keel- 
boats from Prairie du Chien, at Port Snelling a 
box marked Col. Kobert Dickson. On opening, it 
was found to contain a few presents from Peters 
to Dickson's Indian wife, a long letter, and a 
copy of Carver's alleged grant, written on parch- 
ment. 

EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1825 AND 1826. 

On the 30th of October, 1825, seven Indian 
women in canoes, were drawn into the rapids 
above the Palls of St. Anthony. All were saved 



but a Lame girl, who was dashed over the cata- 
ract, and a month later her body was found at 
Pike's Island in front of the fort. 

Forty years ago, the means of communication 
between Fort Snelling and the civilized world 
were very limited. The mail in winter was usu- 
ally carried. by soldiers to Prairie du Chien. On 
the 26th of January, 1826, there was great joy in 
the fort, caused by the return from furlough of 
Lieutenants Baxley and Russell, who brought 
with them the first mail received for five months. 
About this period there was also another excite- 
ment, cause by the seizure of liquors in the trad" 
ing house of Alexis Bailey, at New Hope, now 
Mendota. 

During the months of February and March, in 
this year, snow fell to the depth of two or three 
feet, and there was great suffering among the 
Indians. On one occasion, thirty lodges of Sisse- 
ton and other Sioux were overtaken by a snow- 
storm on a large prairie. The storm continued 
for three days, and provisions grew scarce, for 
the party were seventy in number. At last, the 
stronger men, with the few pairs of snow-shoes 
in their possession, started for a trading post one 
hundred miles distant. They reached their des- 
tination half alive, and the traders sympathizing 
sent four Canadians with supplies for those left 
behind. After great toil they reached the scene 
of distress, and found many dead, and, what was 
more horrible, the living feeding on the corpses 
of their relatives. A mother had eaten her dead 
child and a portion of her own father's arms. 
The shock to her nervous system was so great 
that she lost her reason. Her name was Pash- 
uno-ta, and she was both young and good look- 
ing. One day in September, while at Fort Snell- 
ing, she asked Captain Jouett if he knew which 
was the best portion of a man to eat, at the same 
time taking him by the collar of his coat. He 
replied with great astonishment, "No!" and she 
then said, "The arms." She then asked for a 
piece of his servant to eat, as she was nice and 
fat. A few days after this she dashed herself 
from the bluffs near Fort Snelling, into the river. 
Her body was found just above the mouth of the 
Minnesota, and decently interred by the agent. 

The spring of 1826 was very backward. Oh 
the 20th of March snow fell to the depth of one 
or one and a half feet on a level, and drifted in 



KJEGRO SLAVES AT FORT SNELLING. 



97 



heaps from six to fifteen feet in height. On the 
5th of April, early in the day, there was a violent 
storm, and the ice was still thick in the river. 
During the storm flashes of lightning were seen 
and thunder heard. On the 10th, the thermome- 
ter was four degrees above zero. On the 14th 
there was rain, and on the next day the St. Peter 
river broke up, but the ice on the Mississippi re- 
mained firm. On the 21st, at noon, the ice began 
to move, and carried away Mr. Faribault's houses 
on the east side of the river. For several days 
the river was twenty feet above low water mark, 
and all the houses on low lands were swept off. 
On the second of May, the steamboat Lawrence, 
Captain Reeder, arrived. 

Major Taliaferro had inherited several slaves, 
which he used to hire to officers of the garrison. 
On the 31st of March, his negro boy, William, 
was employed by Col. Snelling, the latter agree- 
ing to clothe him. About this time, "William at- 
tempted to shoot a hawk, but instead shot a small 
boy, named Henry Cullum, and nearly killed him. 
In May, Captain Plympton, of the Fifth Infantry, 
wished to purchase his negro woman, Eliza, but 
he refused, as it was his intention, ultimately, to 
free his slaves. Another of his negro girls, Har- 
riet, was married at the fort, the Major perform- 
ing the ceremony, to the now historic Dred Scott, 
who was then a slave of Surgeon Emerson. The 
only person that ever purchased a slave, to retain 
in slavery, was Alexis Bailly, who bought a man 
of Major Garland. The Sioux, at first, had no 
prejudices against negroes. They called them 
" Black Frenchmen," and placing their hands on 
their woolly heads would laugh heartily. 

Tie following is a list of the steamboats that 
had arrived at Fort Snelling, up to May 26. 1826 : 

1 Virginia, May 10, 1823 ; 2 Neville ; 3 Put- 
nam, April 2, 1825 ; 3 Mandan ; 5 Indiana ; 6 Law- 
rence, May 2, 1826 -; 7 Sciota ; 8 Eclipse; 9 Jo- 
sephine; 10 Fulton; 11 Eed Rover; 12 Black 
Rover; 13 "Warrior; 1-1 Enterprise ; 15 Volant. 

Life within the walls of a fort is sometimes the 
exact contrast of a paradise. In the year 1826 a 
Pandora box was opened, among the officers, and 
dissensions began to prevail. One young officer, 
a graduate of AVest Point, whose father had been 
a professor in Princeton College, fought a duel 
with, and slightly wounded, "William Joseph, the 
talented son of Colonel Snelling, who was then 



twenty-two years of age, and had been three years 
at "West Point. At a Court Martial convened to 
try the officer for violating the Articles of "War, 
the accused objected to the testimony of Lieut. 
"William Alexander, a Tennesseean, not a gradu- 
ate of the Military Academy, on the ground that 
he was an infidel. Alexander, hurt by this allu- 
sion, challenged the objector, and another duel 
was fought, resulting only in slight injuries to 
the clothing of the combatants. Inspector Gen- 
eral E. P. Gaines, after this, visited the fort, and 
in his report of the inspection he wrote : "A 
defect in the discipline of this regiment has ap- 
peared in the character of certain personal con- 
troversies, between the Colonel and several of his 
young officers, the particulars of which I forbear 
to enter into, assured as I am that they will be 
developed in the proceedings of a general court 
martial ordered for the trial of Lieutenant Hun- 
ter and other officers at Jefferson Barracks. 

" From a conversation with the Colonel I can 
have no doubt that he has erred in the course 
pursued by him in reference to some of the con- 
troversies, inasmuch as he has intimated to his 
officers his willingness to sanction in certain cases, 
and even to participate in personal conflicts, con- 
trary to the twenty-fifth, Article of "War." 

The Colonel's son, "William Joseph, after this 
passed several years among traders and Indians, 
and became distinguished as a poet and brilliant 
author. 

His "Tales of the Northwest," published in 
Boston in 1820, by Hilliard, Gray, Little & Wil- 
kins, is a work of great literary ability, and Catlin 
thought the book was the most faithful picture of 
Indian life he had read. Some of his poems were 
also of a high order. One of his pieces, deficient 
in dignity, was a caustic satire upon modern 
American poets, and was published under the 
title of " Truth, a Gift for Scribblers." 

Nathaniel P. AYillis, who had winced under 
the last, wrote the following lampoon : 
" Oh, smelling Joseph ! Thou art like a cur. 

I'm told thou once did live by hunting fur : 

Of bigger dogs thou smellest, and, in sooth, 

Of one extreme, perhaps, can tell the truth. 

'Tis a wise shift, and shows thou know'st thy 
powers. 

To leave the 'North "West tales,' and take to 
smelling ours." 



98 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



In 1S32 a second edition of " Truth " appeared 
with additions and emendations. In this ap- 
peared the following pasquinade upon Willis : 
"I live by hunting fur, thou say'st, so let it be, 
But tell me, Natty 1 Had I hunted thee, 
Had not my time been thrown away, young sir, 
And eke my powder ? Puppies have no fur. 

Our tails ? Thou ownest thee to a tail, 
I've scanned thee o'er and o'er 
But, though I guessed the species .right, 
I was not sure before. 

Our savages, authentic travelers say, 
To natural fools, religious homage pay, 
Hadst thou been born in wigwam's smoke, and 

died in, 
Nat ! thine apotheosis had been certain." 

Snelling died at Chelsea, Mass., December six- 
teenth, 1848, a victim to the appetite which en- 
enslaved Robert Burns. 

In the year 1826, a small party of Ojibways 
(Chippeways) came to see the Indian Agent, 
and three of them ventured to visit the Colum- 
bia Fur Company's trading house, two miles 
from the Fort. While there, they became 
aware of their danger, and desired two of the 
white men attached to the establishment to 
accompany them back, thinking that their pres- 
ence might be some protection. They were in 
error. As they passed a little copse, three Dah- 
kotahs sprang from behind a log with the speed of 
light, fired their pieces into the face of the fore- 
most, and then fled. The guns must have been 
double loaded, for the man's head was literally 
blown from his shoulders, and his white com- 
panions were spattered with brains and blood. 
The survivors gained the Fort without further 
molestation. Their comrade was buried on the 
spot where he fell. A staff was set up on his 
grave, which became a landmark, and received 
the name of The Murder Pole. The murderers 
boasted of their achievement and with impunity. 
They and their tribe thought that they had struck 
a fair blow on their ancient enemies, in a becom- 
ing manner. It was only said, that Toopunkah 
Zeze of the village of the Batture aux Fievres, 
and two others, had each acquired a right to 
wear skunk skins on their heels and war-eagles' 
feathers on their heads. 



EVENTS OF A. D. 1827. 

On the twenty-eighth of May, 1827, the Ojib- 
way chief at Sandy Lake, Kee-wee-zais-hish 
called by the English, Flat Mouth with seven 
warriors and some women and children, in all 
amounting to twenty-four, arrived about sunrise 
at Fort Snelling. Walking to the gates of the 
Z rison, they asked the protection of Colonel 
Snelling and Taliaferro, the Indian agent. They 
were told, that as long as they remained under 
the United States flag, they were secure, and 
were ordered to encamp within musket shot of 
the high stone walls of the fort. 

During the afternoon, a Dahkotah, Toopunkah 
Zeze, from a village near the first rapids of the 
Minnesota, visited the Ojibway camp. They 
were cordially received, and a feast of meat and 
corn and sugar, was soon made ready. The 
wooden plates emptied of their contents, they 
engaged in conversation, and whiffed the peace 
pipe. 

That night, some officers and their friends were 
spending a pleasant evening at the head-quarters 
of Captain Clark, which was in one of the stone 
houses which used to stand outside of the walls 
of the fort. As Captain Cruger was walking on 
the porch, a bullet whizzed by, and rapid firing 
was heard. 

As the Dahkotahs, or Sioux, left the Ojibway 
camp, notwithstanding their friendly talk, they 
turned and discharged their guns with deadly aim 
upon their entertainers, and ran off with a shout 
of satisfaction. The report was heard by the 
sentinel of the fort, and he cried, repeatedly, 
" Corporal of the guard !" and soon at the gates, 
were the Ojibways, with their women and the 
wounded, telling their tale of woe in wild and in- 
coherent language. Two had been killed and six 
wounded. Among others, was a little girl about 
seven years old, who was pierced through both 
thighs with c bullet. Surgeon McMahon made 
every effort to save her life, but without avail. 

Flat Mouth, the chief, reminded Colonel Snel- 
ling that he had been attacked while under the 
protection of the United States flag, and early the 
next morning, Captain Clark, with one hundred 
soldier:;, proceeded towards Land's End, a tra- 
ding-post of the Columbia Fur Company, on the 
Minnesota, a mile above the former residence of 



TRAGIC SCENE UNDER THE WALLS OF THE FORT. 



Franklin Steele, where the Dahkotahs were sup- 
posed to be. The soldiers had just left the large 
gate of the fort, when a party of Dahkotahs, in 
battle array, appeared on one of the prairie 
hills. After some parleying they turned their 
backs, and being pursued, thirty-two were cap- 
tured near the trading-post. 

Colonel Snelling ordered the prisoners to be 
brought before the Ojibways, and two being 
pointed out as participants in the slaughter of the 
preceding night, they were delivered to the 
aggrieved party to deal with in accordance with 
their customs. They were led out to the plain 
in front of the gate of the fort, and when placed 
nearly without the range of the Ojibway guns, 
they were told to run for their lives. With the 
rapidity of deer they bounded away, but the Ojib- 
way bullet (lew faster, and after a few steps, they 
fell gasping on the ground, and were soon lifeless. 
Then the savage nature displayed itself in all its 
hideousness. Women and children danced for 
joy, and placing their fingers in the bullet holes, 
from which the blood oozed, they licked them 
with delight. The men tore the scalps from the 
dead, and seemed to luxuriate in the privilege of 
plunging their knives through the corpses. After 
the execution, the Ojibways returned to the fort, 
and were met by the Colonel. He had prevented 
all over whom his authority extended from wit- 
i nessing the scene, and had done his best to con- 
fine the excitement to the Indians. The same 
day a deputation of Dahkotah warriors received 
audience, regretting the violence that had been 
done by their young men, and agreeing to deliver 
up the ringleaders. 

At the time appointed, a son of Flat Mouth, 
with those of the Ojibwa party that were not 
wounded, escorted by United States troops, 
marched forth to meet the Dahkotah deputation, 
on the prairie just beyond the old residence of 
the Indian agent. With much solemnity two 
more of the guilty were handed over to the 
assaulted. One was fearless, and with firmness 
stripped himself of his clothing and ornaments, 
and distributed them. The other could not face 
death with composure. He was noted for a hid- 
eous hare-lip, and had a bad reputation among 
his fellows. In the spirit of a coward he prayed 
for life, to the mortification of his tribe. The 
same opportunity was presented to them as to the 



first, of running for their lives. At the first fire 
the coward fell a corpse; but his brave compan- 
ion, though wounded, ran on, and had nearly 
reached the goal of safety, when a second bullet 
killed him. The body of the coward now became 
a common object of loathing for both Dahkotahs 
and Ojibways. 

Colonel Snelling told the Ojibways that the 
bodies must be removed, and then they took the 
scalped Dahkotahs, and dragging them by the 
heels, threw them off the bluff into the river, a 
hundred and fifty feet beneath. The dreadful 
scene was now over ; and a detachment of troops 
was sent with the old chief Flat Mouth, to escort 
him out of the reach of Dahkotah vengeance. 

An eyewitness wrote : " After this catastrophe, 
all the Dahkotahs quitted the vicinity of Fort Snel- 
ling, and did not return to it for some months. 
It was said that they formed a conspiracy to de- 
mand a council, and kill the Indian Agent and 
the commanding officer. If this was a fact, they 
had no opportunity, or wanted the spirit, to exe- 
cute their purpose. 

" The Flat Mouth's band lingered in the fort 
till their wounded comrade died. He was sensi- 
ble of his condition, and bore his pains with great 
fortitude. When he felt his end approach, he 
desired that his horse might be gaily caparisoned, 
and brought to the hospital window, so that he 
might touch the animal. He then took from his 
medicine bag a large cake of maple sugar, and held 
it forth. It may seem strange, but it is true, that 
the beast ate it from his hand. His features 
were radiant with delight as he fell back on the 
pillow exhausted. His horse had eaten the sugar, 
he said, and he was sure of a favorable reception 
and comfortable quarters in the other world. 
Half an hour after, he breathed his last. We 
tried to discover the details of his superstition, 
but could not succeed. It is a subject on which 
Indians unwillingly discourse." 

In the fall of 182(5, all the troops at Prairie du 
Chien had been removed to Fort Snelling, the 
commander taking with him two Winnebagoes 
that had been confined in Fort Crawford. After 
the soldiers left the Prairie, the Indians in the 
vicinity were quite insolent. 

In June, 1827, two keel-boats passed Prairie du 
Chien on the way to Fort Snelling with provis- 
ions. When they reached Wapashaw village, on 



100 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



the site of the present town of Winona, the crew 
were ordered to come ashore by the Dahkotahs. 
Complying, they found themselves surrounded by 
Indians with hostile intentions. The boatmen 
had no lire-arms, but assuming a bold mien and a 
defiant voice, the captain of the keel-boats ordered 
the savages to leave the decks ; which was suc- 
cessful, The boats pushed on, and at Ked Wing 
and Kaposia the Indians showed that they were 
not friendly, though they did not molest the 
boats. Before they started on their return from 
Fort Snelling, the men on board, amounting to 
thirty-two, were all provided with muskets and a 
barrel of ball cartridges. 

When the descending keel-boats passed Wapa- 
shaw, the Dahkotas were engaged in the war 
dance, and menaced them, but made no attack. 
Below this point one of the boats moved in ad- 
vance of the other, and when near the mouth of 
the Bad Axe, the half-breeds on board descried 
hostile Indians on the banks. As the channel 
neared the shore, the sixteen men on the first 
boat were greeted with the war whoop and a vol- 
ley of rifle balls from the excited Winnebagoes, 
killing two of the crew. Bushing into their ca- 
noes, the Indians made the attempt to board the 
boat, and two were successful. One of these 
stationed himself at the bow of the boat, and 
fired with killing effect on the men below deck. 
An old soldier of the last war with Great Britain, 
called Saucy Jack, at last despatched him, and 
began to rally the fainting spirits on board. Du- 
ring the fight the boat had stuck on a sand-bar. 
With four companions, amid a shower of balls 
from the savages, he plunged into the water and 
pushed off the boat, and thus moved out of reach 
of the galling shots of the Winnebagoes. As 
they floated down the river during the night, 
they heard a wail in a canoe behind them, the 
voice of a father mourning the death of the son 
who had scaled the deck, and was now a corpse 
in possession of the white men. The rear boat 
passed the Bad Axe river late in the night, and 
escaped an attack. 

The first keel-boat arrived at Prairie du Chein, 
with two of their crew dead, four wounded, and 
the Indian that had been killed on the boat. The 
two dead men had been residents of the Prairie, 
and now the panic was increased. On the morn- 
ing of the twenty-eighth of June the second 



keel -boat appeared, and among her passengers 
was Joseph Snelling, the talented son of the 
colonel, who wrote a story of deep interest, based 
on the facts narrated. 

At a meeting of the citizens it was resolved to 
repair old Port Crawford, and Thomas McNair 
was appointed captain. Dirt was thrown around 
the bottem logs of the fortification to prevent its 
being fired, and young Snelling was put in com- 
mand of one of the block-houses. On the next 
day a voyageur named Loyer, and the well-known 
trader Duncan Graham, started through the in- 
terior, west of the Mississippi, with intelligence 
of the murders, to Port Snelling. Intelligence 
of this attack was received at the fort, on the 
evening of the ninth of July, and Col. Snelling 
started in keel boats with four companies to Port 
Crawford, and on the seventeenth four more 
companies left under Major Powle. After an 
absence of six weeks, the soldiers, without firing 
a gun at the enemy, returned. 

A few weeks after the attack upon the keel 
boats General Gaines inspected the Port, and, 
subsequently in a communication to the War 
Department wrote as follows ; 

" The main points of defence against an enemy 
appear to have been in some respects sacrificed, 
in the effort to secure the comfort and conven- 
ience of troops in peace. These are important 
considerations, but on an exposed frontier the 
primary object ought to be security against the 
attack of an enemy. 

" The buildings are too laige, too numerous, 
and extending over a space entirely too great, 
enclosing a large parade, five times greater than 
is at all desireable in that climate. The build- 
ings for the most part seem well constructed, of 
good stone and other materials, and they contain 
every desirable convenience, comfort and securi- 
ty as barracks and store houses. 

" The work may be rendered very strong and 
adapted to a garrison of two hundred men by re- 
moving one-half the buildings, and with the ma- 
terials of which they are constructed, building a 
tower sufficiently high to command the hill be- 
tween the Mississippi and St. Peter's [Minnesota], 
and by a block house on the extreme point, or 
brow of the cliff, near the commandant's quarters, 
to secure most effectually the banks of the river, 
and the boats at the landing. 



DEATH OF COL. JOSIAH SWELLING. 



101 



"Much credit is due to Colonel Snelling, his 
officers and men, for their immense labors and 
excellent workmanship exhibited in the construc- 
tion of these barracks and store houses, but this 
has been effected too much at the expense of the 
discipline of the regiment." 

From reports made from 1823 to 1826, the health 
of the troops was good. In the year ending Sep- 
tember thirty, 1823, there were but two deaths ; 
in 1824 only six, and in 1825 but seven. 

In 182rf there were three desertions, in 1824 
twenty-two, and in 1825 twenty-nine. Most of 
the deserters were fresh recruits and natives of 
America, Ten of the deserters were foreigners, 
and five of these wereborn in Ireland. In 1826 
there were eight companies numbering two hun- 



dred and fourteen soldiers quartered in the Fort- 
During the fall of 1827 the Fifth Kegiment was 
relieved by a part of the First, and the next year 
Colonel Snelling proceeded to "Washington on bus- 
iness, where he died with inflammation of the 
brain. Major General Macomb announcing his 
death in an order, wrote : 

" Colonel Snelling joined the army in early 
youth. In the battle of Tippecanoe, he was 
distinguished for gallantry and good conduct. 
Subsequently and during the whole late war with 
Great Britain, from the battle of Brownstown to 
the termination of the contest, he was actively 
employed in the field, with credit to himself, and 
honor to his country." 



102 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



OCCURRENCES IN THE VICINITY OF FORT SNELLING, CONTINUED. 



Arrival of J. K. Nicollc (-Marriage of James Wells— Nicollet's letter from Falls- 
of St. Anthony— Perils of Martin McLeod— Chippeway treachery — Sioux Re 
venge — Rum River and Stillwater battles— Grog shops near the Fort. 

On the second of July 1836, the steamboat 
Saint Peter landed supplies, and among its 
passengers was the distinguished French as- 
tronomer, Jean N. Nicollet (Nicolay). Major 
Taliaferro on the twelfth of July, wrote; 
" Mr. Nicollet, on a visit to the post for scientific 
research, and at present in my family, has shown 
me the late work of Henry E. Schoolcraft on the 
discovery of the source of the Mississippi ; which 
claim is ridiculous in the extreme." On the 
twenty-seventh, Nicollet ascended the Mississippi 
on a tour of observation. 

James Wells, a trader, who afterwards was a 
member of the legislature, at the house of Oliver 
Cratte, near the fort, was married on the twelfth 
of September, by Agent Taliaferro, to Jane, a 
daughter of Duncan Graham. Wells was killed 
in 1862, by the Sioux, at the time of the massacre 
in the Minnesota Valley. 

Nicollet in September returned from his trip 
to Leech Lake, and on the twenty-seventh wrote 
the following to Major Taliaferro the Indian 
Agent at the fort, which is supposed to be the 
earliest letter extant written from the site of the 
city of Minneapolis. As the principal hotel and 
one of the finest avenues of that city bears his 
name it is worthy of preservation. He spelled 
his name sometimes Nicoley, and the pronuncia- 
tion in English, would be Nicolay, the same as 
if written Nicollet in French. The letter shows 
that he had not mastered the English language : 
" St. Anthony's Palls, 27th September, 1836, 

Dear Friend :— I arrived last evening about 
dark; all well, nothing lost, nothing broken, 
happy and a very successful journey. But I 
done exhausted, and nothing can relieve me, but 
the pleasure of meeting you again under your 
hospitable roof, and to see all the friends of the 
garrison who have been so kind to me. 



" This letter is more particularly to give you 
a very extraordinary tide. Flat Mouth, the chief 
of Leech Lake and suite, ten in number are with 
me. The day before yesterday I met them again 
at Swan river where they detained me one day. 
I had to bear a new harangue and gave answer. 
All terminated by their own resolution that they 
ought to give you the hand, as well as to the 
Guinas of the Fort (Colonel Davenport.) I 
thought it my duty to acquaint you with it be- 
forehand. Peace or war are at stake of the visit 
they pay you. Please give them a good welcome 
until I have reported to you and Colonel Daven- 
port all that has -taken place during my stay 
among the Pillagers. But be assured I have not 
trespassed and that I have behaved as would 
have done a good citizen of the U. S. As to 
Schoolcraft's statement alluding to you, you will 
have full and complete satisfaction from Flat 
Mouth himself. In haste, your friend, J. N. 
Nicoley." 

events of a. d. 1837. 

On the seventeenth of March, 1837, there ar- 
rived Martin McLeod, who became a prominent 
citizen of Minnesota, and the legislature has 
given his name to a county. 

He left the Red River country on snow shoes, 
with two companions, one a Polander and the 
other an Irishman named Hays, and Pierre Bot- 
tineau as interpreter. Being lost in a violent 
snow storm the Pole and Irishman perished. He 
and his guide, Bottineau, lived for a time on the 
flesh of one of their dogs. After being twenty- 
six days without seeing any one, the survivors 
reached the trading post of Joseph R. Brown, at 
Lake Traverse, and from thence they came to 
the fort. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1838. 

In the month of April, eleven Sioux were slain 
in a dastardly manner, by a party of Ojibways, 



INDIAN BATTLES AT BUM BIVEB AND STILLWATEB. 



103 



under the noted and elder Hole-in-the-Day. The 
Chippeways feigned the warmest friendship, and 
at dark lay down in the tents by the side of the 
Sioux, and in the night silently arose and killed 
them. The occurrence took place at the Chippe- 
way Biver, about thirty miles from Lac qui Parle, 
and the next day the Bev. G.H. Pond, the Indian 
missionary, accompanied by a Sioux, vent out 
and buried the mutilated and scalpless bodies. 

On the second of August old Hole-in-the-Day, 
and some Ojibways, came to the fort. They 
stopped first at the cabin of Peter Quinn, whose 
wife was a half-breed Chippeway, about a mile 
from the fort. 

The missionary, Samuel "W. Pond, told the 
agent that the Sioux, of Lake Calhoun were 
aroused, and on their way to attack the Chippe- 
ways. The agent quieted them for a time, but 
two of the relatives of those slain at Lac qui Parle 
in April, hid themselves near Quinn's house, and 
as Hole-in-the-Day and his associates were pass- 
ing, they fired and killed one Chippeway and 
wounded another. Obequette, a Chippeway from 
Ked Lake, succeded, however, in shooting a 
Sioux while he was in the act of scalping his 
comrade. The Chippeways were brought within 
the fort as soon as possible, and at nine o'clock 
a Sioux was confined in the guard-house as a 
hostage. 

Notwithstanding the murdered Chippeway had 
been buried in the graveyard of the fort for safety, 
an attempt was made on the part of some of the 
Sioux, to dig it up. On the evening of the sixth, 
Major Plympton sent the Chippeways across the 
river to the east side, and ordered them to go 
home as soon as possible. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1839. 

On the twentieth day of June the elder Hole- 
in-the-Day arrived from the Upper Mississippi 
with several hunched Chippeways. Upon their 
return homeward the Mississippi and Mille Lacs 
band encamped the first night at the Falls of Saint 
Anthony, and some of the Sioux visited them and 
smoked the pipe of peace. 

On the second of July, about sunrise, a son-in- 
law of the chief of the Sioux band, at Lake Cal- 
houn, named Meekaw or Badger, was killed and 
scalped by two Chippeways of the Pillager band, 
relatives of him who lost his life near Patrick 



Quisn's the year before. The excitement was 
intense among- the Sioux, and immediately war 
parties started in pursuit. Hole-in-the-Day's 
band was not sought, but the Mille Lacs and 
Saint Croix Chippeways. The Lake Calhoun 
Sioux, with those from the villages on the 
Minnesota, assembled at the Palls of Saint 
Anthony, and on the morning of the fourth 
of July, came up with the Mille Lacs 
Chippeways on Kum Biver, before sunrise. Not 
long after the war whoop was raised and the 
Sioux attacked, killing and wounding ninety. 

The Kaposia band of Sioux pursued the Saint 
Croix Chippeways, and on the third of July found 
them in the Penitentiary ravine at Stillwater, 
under the influence of whisky. Aitkin, the old 
trader, was with them. The sight of the 
Sioux tended to make them sober, but in the fight 
twenty-one were killed and twenty-nine were 
wounded. 

Whisky, during the year 1839, was freely in- 
troduced, in the face of the law prohibiting it. 
The first boat of the season, the Ariel, came to 
the fort on the fourteenth of April, and brought 
twenty barrels of whisky for Joseph K. Brown, 
and on the twenty-first of May, the Glaucus 
brought six barrels of liquor for David Faribault. 
On the thirtieth of June, some soldiers went to 
Joseph B. Brown's groggery on the opposite side 
of the Mississippi, and that night forty -seven 
were in the guard-house for drunkenness. The 
demoralization then existing, led to a letter by 
Surgeon Emerson, on duty at the fort, to the Sur- 
geon General of the United States army, in which 
he writes : 

" The whisky is brought here by citizens who 
are pouring in upon us and settling themselves 
on the opposite shore of the Mississippi river, 
in defiance of our worthy commanding officer, 
Major J. Plympton, whose authority they set 
at naught. At this moment there is a 
citizen named Brown, once a soldier in 
the Fifth Infantry, who was discharged at 
this post, while Colonel Snelling commanded, 
and who has been since employed by the Ameri- 
can Fur Company, actually building on the land 
marked out by the land oflBcers as the reserve, 
and within gunshot distance of the fort, a very 
expensive whisky shop." 



101 



EXFLOEEES AND PIOXEEES OF 3IINNES0TA. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 



INDIAN TRIBES IN MINNESOTA AT THE TIME OF ITS ORGANIZATION. 



The three Indian nations who dwelt in this 
region after the organization of Minnesota, were 
the Sioux or Dahkotahs ; the O jib ways or Chip- 
peways ; and the Ho-tchun-graws or Winneba- 
goes. 

SIOUX OR DAHKOTAHS. 

They are an entirely different group from the 
Algonquin and Iroquois, who were found by the 
early settlers of the Atlantic States, on the banks 
of the Connecticut, Mohawk, and Susquehanna 
Eivers. 

"When the Dahkotahs were first noticed by the 
European adventurers, large numbers were occu- 
pying the Mille Lacs region of country, and appro- 
priately called by the voyageur, "People of the 
Lake," "Gens du Lac." And tradition asserts that 
here was the ancient centre of this tribe. Though 
we have traces of their warring and hunting on the 
shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory 
evidence of their residence, east of the Mille Lacs 
region, as they have no name for Lake Superior. 

The word Dahkotah, by which they love to be 
designated, signifies allied or joined together in 
friendly compact, and is equivalent to " E pluri- 
bus unum," the motto on the seal of the United 
States. 

In the history of the mission at La Pointe, 
Wisconsin, published nearly two centuries ago, a 
a writer, referring to the Dahkotahs, remarks : 

" For sixty leagues from the extremity of the 
Upper Lake, toward sunset ; and, as it were in 
the centre of the western nations, they have all 
united tlieir force by a general league." 

The Dahkotahs in the earliest documents, and 
even until the present day, are called Sioux, Scioux, 
or Soos. The name originated with the early voy- 
ageurs. For centuries the Ojibways of Lake 
Superior waged war against the Dahkotahs ; and, 



whenever they spoke of them, called them Kado- 
waysioux, which signifies enemies. 

The French traders, to avoid exciting the atten- 
tion of Indians, while conversing in their pres- 
ence, were accustomed to designate them by 
names, which would not be recognized. 

The Dahkotahs were nicknamed Sioux, a word 
composed of the two last syllables of the Ojibway 
word for foes 

Under the influence of the French traders, the 
eastern Sioux began to wander from the Mille 
Lacs region. A trading post at O-ton-we-kpa- 
dan, or Rice Creek, above the Falls of Saint 
Anthony, induced some to erect their summer 
dwellings and plant corn there, which took the 
place of wild rice. Those who dwelt here were 
called Wa-kpa-a-ton-we-dan Those who dwell on 
the creek. Another division was known as the 
Ma-tan-ton-wan. 

Less than a hundred years ago, it is said that 
the eastern Sioux, pressed by the Chippeways, 
and influenced by traders, moved seven miles 
above Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River. 

MED-DAY-WAH-KAWN-TWAWNS. 

In 1849 there were seven villages of Med-day- 
wah-kawn-twawn Sioux. (1) Below Lake Pepin, 
where the city of Winona is, was the village of 
Wapashaw. This band was called Kee-yu-ksa, 
because with them blood relations intermarried. 
Bounding or Whipping Wind was the chief. (2) 
At the head of Lake Pepin, under a lofty bluff, 
was the Red Wing village, called Ghay-mni-chan 
Hill, wood and water. Shooter was the name 
of the chief. (3) Opposite, and a little below the 
Pig's Eye Marsh, was the Kaposia band. The 
word, Kapoja means light, given because these 
people are quick travelers. His Scarlet People, 
better known as Little Crow, was the chief, and 
is notorious as the leader in the massacre of 1862. 

On the Minnesota River, on the south side 



NOTICE OF THE HOTCHUNGRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES. 



105 



a few miles above Fort Snelling, was Black Dog 
village. The inhabitants were called, Ma-ga-yu- 
tay-shnee. People who do not a geese, be- 
cause they found it profitable to sell game at Fort 
Snelling. Grey Iron was the chief, also known 
as Pa-ma-ya-yaw, My head aches. Y 

At Oak Grove, on the north side of the river, 
eight miles above the fort, was (5) Hay-ya-ta-o- 
ton-wan, or Inland Village, so called because 
they formerly lived at Lake Calkoun. Contigu- 
ous was (6) O-ya-tay-shee-ka, or Bad People, 
Known as Good Koads Band and (7) the largest 
village was Tin-ta-ton-wan, Prairie Village ; 
Shokpay, or Six, was the chief, and is now the 
site of the town of Shakopee. 
West of this division of the Sioux were— 

WAR-FAY-KU-TAY. ■ 

The AVar-pay-ku-tay, or leaf shooters, who 
occupied the country south of the Minnesota 
around the sources of the Cannon and Blue Earth 
Kivers. ' 

WAR-PAY-TWAWNS. 

North and west of the last were the War-pay- 
twawns, or People of the Leaf, and their princi- 
pal village was Lac qui Parle. They numbered 
about fifteen hundred. 

SE-SEE-TWAWNS. 

To the west and southwest of these bands of 
Sioux were the Se-see-twawns (Sissetoans), or 
Swamp Dwellers. This band claimed the land 
west of the Blue Earth to the James River, and 
the guardianship of the Sacred Red Pipestone 
Quarry. Their principal village was at Traverse, 
and the number of the band was estimated at 
thirty-eight hundred. 

HO-TCHUN-GRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES. 

The Ho-tchun-graws, or Winnebagoes, belong 
to the Dahkotah family of aborigines. Cham- 
plain, although he never visited them, mentions 
them. Nicollet, who had been in his employ, 
visited Green Bay about the year 1635, and an 
early Relation mentions that he saw the Ouini- 
pegous, a people called so, because they came 
from a distant sea, which some French erron- 
eously called Puants. Another writer speak- 



,ing of these "people says: "This people are 
called ' Les Puants 'not because of any bad odor 
.peculiar to them, but because they claim to have 
come from the shores of a far distant lake, 
towards the north, whose waters are salt. They 
call themselves the people ' de l'eau puants,' of 
the putrid or bad water." 

By the treaty of 1837 they were removed to 
Iowa, and by another treaty in October, 1846, 
they came to Minnesota in the spring of 1848, 
to the country between the Long Prairie, 
and Crow Wing Rivers. The agency was located 
on Long Prairie River, forty miles from the 
Mississippi, and in 1849 the tribe numbered 
about twenty-five hundred souls. 

In February 1855, another treaty was made 
with them, and that spring they removed to lands 
on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic 
caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Con- 
gress, by a special act, without consulting them, 
in 1863, removed them from their fields in Min- 
nesota to the Missouri River, and in the words 
of a missionary, "they were, like the Sioux, 
dumped in the desert, one hundred miles above 
Fort Randall" 

OJIBWAY OR CHIPPEWAY NATION. 

The Ojibways or Leapers, when the French 
came to Lake Superior, had their chief settlement 
at Sault St. Marie, and were called by the French 
Saulteurs, and by the Sioux, Hah-ha-tonwan, 
Dwellers at the Falls or Leaping Waters. 

When Du Luth erected his trading post at the 
western extremity of Lake Superior, they had not 
obtained any foothold in Minnesota, and were 
constantly at war with their hereditary enemes, 
the Xadouaysioux. By the middle of the 
eighteenth century, they had pushed in and occu- 
pied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points 
between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which 
had been dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1820 
the principal villages of Ojibways in Minnesota 
were at Fond du Lac, Leech Lake and Sandy 
Lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands. 
Since then, other treaties have been made, until 
in the year 1881, they are confined to a few res- 
ervations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity. 



EXPLOh'KL's AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



OHAPTEE XIX. 



EARLY MISSIONS AMONG THE OJIBWAYS AND DAHKOTAHS OF MINNESOTA. 



.Usui l .Missions not permanent— Pivsl-yl.-rinn Mi -stun it Ma.-kin;uv— Visit of Rev. 
A. foe and J D. Stevens to Fort Snclling— Notice of Ayrrs, Hal], and Boutwcll 
— Formation o( the word Iiasea— The Brothers Pond— Arrival of Dr. William- 
son-Presbyterian Church at Fort Snclling— Mission at Lake Harriet— Mourn- 
ing lor the Dead— Church at Lac-qui parle— Father Itavoux — Mission at Lake 
Pokepuua — Attack by the Sioux — Chippcway attack at Pig's Eye — Death of 
Rev. Sherman Hall — Methodist Missions Rev. S. "W. Pond prepares a Sioux 
: and Dictionary Swiss Presbyterian Mission. 



Bancroft the distinguished historian, catching 
the enthusiasm of the narratives of the early 
Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, their 
missions to the Northwest ; yet it is erroneous 
to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any perma- 
nent influence on the Aborigines. 

Shea, a devoted member of the Eoman Catho- 
lic Church, in his History of American Catholic 
Missions writes : " In 1680 Father Engalran was 
apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at 
Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le- 
Clerq nor Hennepin, the Becollect writers of the 
West at this time, make any mention, or in any 
way allude to then- existence." He also says 
that "Father Menard had projected a Sioux 
mission ; Marquette, Allouez, Druilletes, all en- 
tertained hopes of realizing it, and had some 
intercourse with that nation, but none of them 
ever succeeded in establishing a mission." 

Father Hennepin wrote: " Can it be possible, 
that, that pretended prodigious amount of savage 
converts could escape the sight of a multitude 
of French Canadians who travel every year? 
* * * * How comes it to pass that these 
churches so devout and so numerous, should be 
invisible, when I passed through so many 
countries and nations ? " 

After the American Fur Company was formed, 
the island of Mackinaw became the residence of 
the principal agent for the Northwest,' Bobert 
Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian. 

In the month of June, 1820, the Bev. Dr. 
Morse, father of the distinguished inventor of 
the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackinaw, 
and in consequence of statements published by 



him, upon his return, a Presbyterian Missionary 
Society in the state of New York sent a graduate 
of Union College, the Bev. W. M. Ferry, father 
of the present United States Senator from Michi- 
gan, to explore the field. In 1823 he had estab- 
lished a large boarding school composed of 
children of various tribes, and here some were 
educated who became wives of men of intelli- 
gence and influence at the capital of Minnesota. 
After a few years, it was determined by the 
Mission Board to modify its plans, and in the 
place of a great central station, to send mission- 
aries among the several tribes to teach and to 
preach. 

In pursuance of this policy, the Bev. Alvan 
Coe, and J. D. Stevens, then a licentiate who 
had been engaged in the Mackinaw Mission, 
made a tour of exploration, and arrived on 
September 1, 1829, at Fort Snelling. In the 
journal of Major Lawrence Taliaferro, which 
is in possession of the Minnesota Historical 
Society, is the following entry: "The Bev. 
Mr. Coe and Stevens reported to be on their way 
to this post, members of the Presbyterian church 
looking out for suitable places to make mission- 
ary establishment for the Sioux and Chippeways, 
found schools, and instruct in the arts and agri- 
culture." 

The agent, although not at that time a commu- 
nicant of the Church, welcomed these visitors, 
and afforded them every facility in visiting the 
Indians. On Sunday, the 6th of September, the 
Bev. Mr. Coe preached twice in the fort, and the 
next night held a prayer meeting at the quarters 
of the commanding officer. On the next Sunday 
he preached again, and on the 14th, with Mr. 
Stevens and a hired guide, returned to Mackinaw 
by way of the St. Croix river. During this visit 
the agent offered for a Presbyterian mission the 
mill which then stood on the site of Minneapolis, 
and had been erected by the government, as well as 



FOBMATION OF THE WORD ITASKA. 



107 



the farm at Lake Calhoun, which was begun to 
teach the Sioux agriculture. 

CHIPPEWAY MISSIONS. 

In 1830, F. Ayer, one of the teachers at Mack- 
inaw, made an exploration as far as La Pointe, 
and returned. 

Upon the 30th day of August, 1831, a Macki- 
naw boat about forty feet long arrived at La 
Pointe, bringing from Mackinaw the principal 
trader, Mr. Warren, Kev. Sherman Hall and wife, 
and Mr. Frederick Ayer, a catechist and teacher. 

Mrs. Hall attracted great attention, as she was 
the first white woman who had visited that 
region. Sherman Hall was born on April 30, 
1801, at Wethersfield, Vermont, and in 1828 
graduated at Dartmouth College, and completed 
his theological studies at Andover, Massachu- 
setts, a few weeks before he journeyed to the 
Indian country. 

His classmate at Dartmouth and Andover, the 
Eev W. T. Boutwell still living near Stillwater, 
became his yoke-fellow, but remained for a time 
at Mackinaw, which they reached about the mid- 
dle of July. In June, 1832, Henry R. School- 
craft, the head of an exploring expedition, invited 
Mr. Boutwell to accompany him to the sources of 
the Mississippi. 

When the expedition reached Lac la Biche or 
Elk Lake, on July 13, 1832, Mr. Schoolcraft, who 
was not a Latin scholar, asked the Latin word for 
truth, and was told ''Veritas." He then wanted 
the word which signified head, and was told 
"caput." To the astonishment of many, School- 
craft struck off the first sylable, of the word 
ver-i-tas and the last sylable of ca-put, and thus 
coined the word Itasca, which he gave to the 
lake, and which some modern writers, with all 
gravity, tell us was the name of a maiden who 
once dwelt on its banks. Upon Mr. BoutwelFs 
return from this expedition he was at first asso- 
ciated with Mr. Hall in the mission at La Pointe. 

In 1833 the mission band which had centered 
at La Pointe diffused their influence. In Octo- 
ber Eev. Mr. Boutwell went to Leech Lake, Mr. 
Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wiscon- 
sin, and Mr. E. F. Ely, now in California, became 
a teacher at Aitkin's trading post at Sandy Lake. 

SIOUX MISSIONARIES. 

Mr. Boutwell, of Leech Lake Station, on the 



sixth of May, 1834, happened to be on a visit to 
Fort Snelling. While there a steamboat arrived, 
and among the passengers were two young men, 
brothers, natives of Washington, Connecticut, 
Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, who had come, 
constrained by the love of Christ, and without con- 
ferring with flesh and blood, to try to improve 
the Sioux. 

Samuel, the older brother, the year before, had 
talked with a liquor seller in Galena, Illinois, who 
had come from the Red River country, and the 
desire was awakened to help the Sioux ; and he 
wrote to his brother to go with him. 

The Rev. Samuel W. Pond still lives at Shako- 
pee, in the old mission house, the first building of 
sawed lumber erected in the valley of the Minne- 
sota, above Fort Snelling. 

MISSIONS AMONG THE SIOUX A. D. 1835. 

About this period, a native of South Carolina, 
a graduate of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, 
the Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D., who previous 
to his ordination had been a respectable physi- 
cian in Ohio, was appointed by the American 
Board of Foreign Missions to visit the Dahkotahs 
with the view of ascertaining what could be done 
to introduce Christian instruction. Having made 
inquiries at Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling, 
he reported the field was favorable. 

The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, 
through their joint Missionary Society, appointed 
the following persons to labor in Mimiesota: 
Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M. D., missionary 
and physician ; Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary ; 
Alexander Huggins, farmer ; and their wives ; 
Miss Sarah Poage, and Lucy Stevens, teachers; 
who were prevented during the year 1834, by the 
state of navigation, from entering upon their 
work. 

During the winter of 1834-35, a pious officer 
of the army exercised a good influence on his 
fellow officers and soldiers under his command. 
In the absence of a chaplain of ordained minis- 
ter, he, like General Havelock, of the British 
army in India, was accustomed not only to drill 
the soldiers, but to meet them in bis own quar- 
ters, and reason with them ".of righteousness, 
temperance, and judgment to come." 

In the month of May, 1835, Dr. Williamson 
and mission band arrived at Fort Snelling, and 



108 



EXrLOBEHS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



were hospitably received by the officers of the 
garrison, the Indian Agent, and Mr. Sibley, Agent 
of the Company at Mendota, who had been in 
the country a few months. 

On the twenty-seventh of this month the Eev. 
Dr. Williamson united in marriage at the Port 
Lieutenant Edward A. Ogden to Eliza Edna, the 
daughter of Captain G. A. Loomis, the first 
marriage service in which a clergyman officiated 
hi the present State of Minnesota. 

On the eleventh of June a meeting was held 
at the Fort to organize a Presbyterian Church, 
sixteen persons who had been communicants, 
and six who made a profession of faith, one of 
whom was Lieutenant Ogden, were enrolled as 
members. 

Four elders were elected, among whom were 
Capt. Gustavus Loomis and Samuel W. Pond. 
The next day a lecture preparatory to administer- 
ing the communion, was delivered, and on Sun- 
day, the 14th, the first organized church in the 
Valley of the Upper Mississippi assembled for 
the first time in one of the Company rooms of the 
Fort. The services in the morning were conducted 
by Dr. Williamson. The afternoon service com- 
menced at 2 o'clock. The sermon of Mr. Stevens 
was upon a most appropriate text, 1st Peter, ii:25; 
" For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now 
returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your 
souls." After the discourse, the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper was administered. 

At a meeting of the Session on the thirty-first 
of July, Eev. J. D. Stevens, missionary, was in- 
vited to preach to the church, " so long as the 
duties of his mission will permit, and also to pre- 
side at all the meetings of the Session." Captain 
Gustavus Loomis was elected Stated Clerk of the 
Session, and theyTesolved to observe the monthly 
concert of prayer on the first Monday of each 
month, for the conversion of the world. 

Two points were selected by the missionaries 
as proper spheres of labor. Mr. Stevens and 
family proceeded to Lake Harriet, and Dr. Wil- 
liamson and family, in June, proceeded to Lac 
qui Parle. 

As there had never been a chaplain at Fort 
Snelling, the Eev. J. D. Stevens, the missionary 
at Lake Harriet, preached on Sundays to the 
Presbyterian church, there, recently organized. 



Writing on January twenty-seventh, 1836, he 
says, in relation to his field of labor: 

" Yesterday a portion of this band of Indians, 
who had been some time absent from this village, 
returned. One of the number (a woman) was 
informed that a brother of hers had died during 
her absence. He was not at this village, but 
with another band, and the information had just 
reached here. In the evening they set up a most 
piteous crying, or rather wailing, which con- 
tinued, with some little cessations, during the 
night. The sister of the deceased brother would 
repeat, times without number, words which may 
be thus translated into English : ' Come, my 
brother, I shall see you no more for ever.' The 
night was extremely cold, the thermometer 
standing from ten to twenty below zero. About 
sunrise, next morning, preparation was made for 
performing the ceremony of cutting their flesh, 
in order to give relief to their grief of mind. 
The snow was removed from the frozen ground 
over about as large a space as would be required 
to place a small Indian lodge or wigwam. In the 
centre a very small fire was kindled up, not to 
give warmth, apparently, but to cause a smoke. 
The sister of the deceased, who was the chief 
mourner, came out of her lodge followed by 
three other women, who repaired to the place 
prepared. They were all barefooted, and nearly 
naked. Here they set up a most bitter lamenta- 
tion and crying, mingling their wailings with the 
words before mentioned. The principal mourner 
commenced gashing or cutting her ankles and 
legs up to the knees with a sharp stone, until her 
legs were covered with gore and flowing blood ; 
then in like manner her arms, shoulders, and 
breast. The others cut themselves in the same 
way, but not so severely. On this poor infatuated 
woman I presume there were more than a hun- 
dred long deep gashes in the flesh. I saw the 
operation, and the blood instantly followed the 
instrument, and flowed down upon the flesh. She 
appeared frantic with grief. Through the pain 
of her wounds, the loss of blood, exhaustion of 
strength by fasting, loud and long-continued and 
bitter groans, or the extreme cold upon her al- 
most naked and lacerated body, she soon sunk 
upon the frozen ground, shaking as with a violent 
fit of the ague, and writhing in apparent agony. 
'Surely,' I exclaimed, as I beheld the bloody 



-^TT 



A BOMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONABY 



109 



sceDe, 'the tender mercies of the heathen are 
cruelty !' 

" The little church at the fort begins to mani- 
fest something of a missionary spirit Their con- 
tributions are considerable for so small a number. 
I hcpe they will not only be willing to contribute 
liberally of their substance, but will give them- 
selves, at least some of them, to the missionary 
work. 

" The surgeon of the military post, Dr. Jan-is, 
has been very assiduous in his attentions to us in 
our sickness, and has very generously made a do- 
nation to our board of twenty-five dollars, being 
the amount of his medical services in our family. 

" On the nineteenth instant we commenced a 
school with six full Indian children, at least so in 
all their habits, dress, etc.; not one could speak a 
word of any language but Sioux. The school has 
since increased to the number of twenty-five. I 
am now collecting and arranging words for a dic- 
tionary. Mr. Pond is assiduously employed in 
preparing a small spelling-book, which we may 
forward next mail for printing. 

On the fifteenth of September, 1836, a Presby- 
terian church was organized at Lac-cpri-Parle, a 
branch of that in and near Fort Bnelling, and 
Joseph Renville, a mixed blood of great influ- 
ence, became a communicant. He had been 
trained in Canada by a Roman Catholic priest, 
but claimed the right of private judgment. .Mr. 
Renville's wife was the first pure Dahkotah of 
whom we have any record that ever joined the 
Church of Christ. This church has never become 
extinct, although its members have been neces- 
sarily nomadic. After the treaty of Traverse des 
Sioux, it was removed to Hazlewood. Driven 
from thence by the outbreak of 1862, it has lie- 
came the parent of other churches, in the valley 
of the upper Missouri, over one of which John 
Renville, a descendant of the elder at Lac-qui- 
Parle, is the pastor. 

KOMAN CATTIOLIC MISSION ATTEMPTED. 
Father Eavoux, recently from France, a sin- 
cere and earnest priest of the Church of Rome, 
came to Mendota in the autumn of 1841, and 
after a brief sojourn with the Rev. L. Galtier. 
who had erected Saint Paul's chapel, which has 
given the name of Saint Paul to the capital of 
Minnesota, he ascended the Minnesota River 
and visited Lac-qui-Parle. 



Bishop Loras, of Dubuque, wrote the next year 
of his visit as follows : " Our young missionary, 
M. Ravoux, passed the winter on the banks of 
Lac-qui-Parle, without any other support than 
Providence, without any other means of conver- 
sion than a burning zeal, he has wrought in the 
space of six months, a happy revolution among 
the Sioux. From the time of his arrival he has 
been occupied night and day in the study of their 
language. ***** When he instructs 
the savages, he speaks to them with so much fire 
whilst showing them a large copper crucifix which 
he carries on his breast, that he makes the strong- 
est impression upon them." 

The impression, however was evanescent, and 
he soon retired from the field, and no more efforts 
were made in this direction by the Church of 
Rome. This young Mr. Ravoux is now the highly 
respected vicar of the Roman Catholic diocese of 
Minnesota, and justly esteemed for his simplicity 
and unobtrusiveness. 

CHIPPEWAY MISSIONS AT POKEGTJMA. 

Pokeguma is one of the "Mille Lacs," or thou- 
sand beautiful lakes for which Minnesota is re- 
markable. It is about four or five miles in extent, 
and a mile or more in width. 

This lake is situated on Snake River, about 
twenty miles above the junction of that stream 
with the St. Croix. 

In the year 1836, missionaries came to reside 
among the Ojibways and Pokeguma, to promote 
their temporal and spiritual welfare. Their mis- 
sion house was built on the east side of the lake ; 
but the Indian village was on an island not far 
from the shore. 

In a letter written in 1837, we find the fol- 
lowing: "The young women and girls now 
make, mend, wash, and iron after our man- 
ner. The men have learned to build log houses, 
drive team, plough, hoe, and handle an American 
axe with some skill hi cutting large trees, the 
size of which, two years ago, would have afforded 
them a sufficient reason why they should not med- 
dle with them." 

In May, 1841, Jeremiah Russell, who was In- 
dian farmer, sent two Chippeways, accompanied 
by Elam Greeley, of Stillwater, to the Falls of 
Saint Croix for supplies. On Saturday, the 
fifteenth of the month they arrived there, and 



110 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



the next day a steamboat came up with the 
goods. The captain said a war party of Sioux, 
headed by Little Crow, was advancing, and the 
two Chippeways prepared to go back and were 
their friends. 

They had hardly left the Falls, on their re- 
turn, before they saw a party of Dahkotahs. The 
sentinel of the enemy had not noticed the ap- 
proach of the young men. In the twinkling of 
an eye. these two young Ojibways raised their 
guns, tired, and killed two of Little Crow's sons. 
The discharge of the guns revealed to a sentinel, 
that an enemy was near, and as the Ojibways 
were retreating, he fired, and mortally wounded 
one of the two. 

According to custom, the corpses of the chief's 
sons were dressed, and then set up with their 
faces towards the country of their ancient ene- 
mies. The wounded Ojibway was horribly 
mangled by the infuriated party, and his limbs 
strewn about in every direction. His scalped 
head was placed in a kettle, and suspended in 
front of the two Dahkotah corpses. 

Little Crow, disheartened by the loss of his two 
boys, returned with his party to Kaposia. But 
other parties were in the field. 

It was not till Friday, the twenty-first of May, 
that the death of one of the young Ojibways 
sent by Mr. Bussed, to the Falls of Saint Croix, 
was known at Pokeguma. 

Mr. Bussed on the next Sunday, accompanied 
by Captain William Holcomb and a half-breed, 
went to the mission station to attend a religious 
service, and while crossing the lake in returning, 
the half-breed said that it was rumored that the 
Sioux were approaching. On Monday, the twen- 
ty-fourth, three young men left in a canoe to go 
to the west shore of the lake, and from thence to 
Mille Lacs, to give intelligence to the Ojibways 
there, of the skirmish that had already occurred. 
They took with them two Indian girls, about 
twelve years of age, who were pupils of the mis- 
sion school, for the purpose of bringing the canoe 
back to the island. Just as the three were land- 
ing, twenty or thirty Dahkotah warriors, with a 
war whoop emerged from their concealment be- 
hind the trees, and fired into the canoe. The 
young men instantly sprang into the water, which 



was shallow, returned the fire, and ran into the 
woods, escaping without material injury. 

The little girls, in their fright, waded into the 
lake; but were pursued. Their parents upon 
the island, heard the death cries of their chddren. 
Some of the Indians arcund the mission-house 
jumped into their canoes and gained the island. 
Others went into some fortified log huts. The 
attack upon the canoe, it was afterwards learned, 
was premature. The party upon that side of the 
lake were ordered not to fire, until the party 
stationed in the woods near the mission began. 

There were in all one hundred and eleven 
Dahkotah warriors, and all the fight was in the 
vicinity of the mission-house, and the Ojibways 
mostly engaged in it were those who had been 
under religious instruction. The rest were upon 
the island. 

The fathers of the murdered girls, burning for 
revenge, left the island in a canoe, and drawing 
it up on the shore, hid behind it, and fired upon 
the Dahkotahs and killed one. The Dahkotahs 
advancing upon them, they were obliged to 
escape. The canoe was now launched. One lay 
on his back in the bottom; the other plunged 
into the water, and, holding the canoe witli one 
hand, and swimming with the other, he towed 
his friend out of danger. The Dahkotahs, in- 
furiated at their escape, fired volley after volley 
at the swimmer, but he escaped the balls by 
putting his head under water whenever he saw 
them take aim, and waiting till he heard the 
discharge, he would then look up and breathe. 

After a fight of two hours, the Dahkotahs re- 
treated, with a loss of two men. At the request 
of the parents, Mr. E. F. Ely, from whose 
notes the writer has obtained these facts, be- 
ing at that time a teacher at the mission, 
went across the lake, with two of his friends, to 
gather the remains of his murdered pupils. He 
found the corpses on the shore. The heads cut 
off and scalped, with a tomahawk buried in the 
brains of each, were set up in the sand near the 
bodies. The bodies were pierced in the breast, 
and the right arm of one was taken away. Ee- 
moving the tomahawks, the bodies were brought 
back to the island, and in the afternoon were 
buried in accordance with the simple but solemn 
rites of the Church of Christ, by members of the 
mission. 



SIOUX MISSIONARIES BEFORE TEE TREATIES. 



Ill 



The sequel to this story is soon told. The In- 
dians of Pokeguma, after the fight, deserted their 
village, and went to reside with their countrymen 
near Lake Superior. 

In July of the following year, 1842, a war party 
was formed at Fond du Lac, about forty in num- 
ber, and proceeded towards the Dahkotah country. 
Sneaking, as none but Indians can, they arrived 
unnoticed at the little settlement below Saint 
Paul, commonly called "Pig's Eye," which is 
opposite to what was Kaposia, or Little Crow's 
village. Finding an Indian woman at work in 
the garden of her husband, a Canadian, by the 
name of Gamelle, they killed her ; also another 
woman, with her infant, whose head was cut off. 
The Dahkotahs, on the opposite side, were mostly 
intoxicated ; and, flying across in their canoes but 
half prepared, they were worsted in the en- 
counter. They lost thirteen warriors, and one of 
their number, known as the Dancer, the Ojib- 
ways are said to have skinned. 

Soon after this the Chippeway missions of the 
St. Croix Valley were abandoned. 

In a little while Rev. Mr. Boutwell removed to 
the vicinity of Stillwater, and the missionaries, 
Ayer and Spencer, went to Red Lake and other 
points in Minnesota. 

In 1853 the Rev. Sherman Hall left the Indians 
and became pastor of a Congregational church at 
Sauk Rapids, where he recently died. 

METHODIST MISSIONS. 

In 1837 the Rev. A. Branson commenced a 
Methodist mission at Kaposia, about four miles 
below, and opposite Saint Paul. It was afterwards 
removed across the river to Red Rock. He was 
assisted by the Rev. Thomas W. Pope, and the 
latter was succeeded by the Rev. J. Holton. 

The Rev. Mr. Spates and others also labored 
for a brief period among the Ojibways. 

PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS CONTINUED. 

At the stations the Dahkotah language was dil- 
igently studied. Rev. S. W. Pond had prepared 
a dictionary of three thousand words, and also a 
small grammar. The Rev. S. R. Riggs, who 
joined the mission in 1837, in a letter dated 
February 24, 1841, writes: "Last summer^ 
after returning from Fort Snelling. I spent five 
weeks in copying again the Sioux vocabulary 
which we had collected and arranged at this sta- 



tion. It contained then about 5500 words, not 
including the various forms of the verbs. Since 
that time, the words collected by Dr. Williamson 
and myself, have, I presume, increased the num- 
ber to six thousand. ***** in this con- 
nection, I may mention that during the winter of 
1839-40, Mrs. Riggs, with some assistance, wrote 
an English and Sioux vocabulary containing 
about three thousand words. One of Mr. Ren- 
ville's sons and three of his daughters are en- 
gaged in copying. In committing the grammati- 
cal principles of the language to writing, we have 
done something at this station, but more has been 
done by Mr. S. W. Pond." 

Steadily the number of Indian missionaries 
increased, and in 1851, before the lands of the 
Dahkotahs west of the Mississippi were ceded to 
the whites, they were disposed as follows by the 
Dahkotah Presbytery. 

I(i<-qui-parJe, Rev. S. R. Riggs, Rev. M. N. 
Adams, Missionaries, Jonas Pettijohn, Mrs. 
Fanny Pettijohn, Mrs. Mary Ann Riggs, Mrs. 
Mary A. M. Adams, Miss Sarah Rankin, As- 
sistants. 

Traverse des Sioux, Rev. Robert Hopkins. Mis- 
sionary; Mrs. Agnes Hopkins, Alexander G. 
Huggins, Mrs. Lydia P. Huggins, Assistant*. 

Shakpay, or Shokpay, Rev. Samuel W. Pond, 
Missionary; Mrs. Sarah P. Pond, Assistant. 

Oak Grove, Rev. Gideon H. Pond and wife. 

Kaposia, Rev. Thomas Williamson, M. D., 
Missionary and Physician ; Mrs. Margaret P. 
Williamson, Miss Jane S. Williamson, Assistants. 

Riil Wing, Rev. John F. Aiton, Rev. Joseph 
W. Hancock, Missionaries; Mrs. Nancy H. Aiton, 
Mrs. Hancock, Assistants. 

The Rev. Daniel Gavin, the Swiss Presbyte- 
rian Missionary, spent the winter of 1839 in Lac- 
qui-Parle and was afterwards married to a niece 
of the Rev. J. D. Stevens, of the Lake Harriet 
Mission. Mr. Stevens became the farmer and 
teacher of the Wapashaw band, and the first 
white man who lived where the city of Winona 
has been built. Another missionary from Switz- 
erland, the Rev. Mr. Denton, married a Miss 
Skinner, formerly of the Mackinaw mission. 
During a portion of the year 1839 these Swiss 
missionaries lived with the American mission- 
aries at camp Cold Water near Fort Snelling, 
but their chief field of labor was at Red Wing. 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER XX. 



TREAD OF PIONEERS IN THE SAINT CROIX VALLEY AND ELSEWHERE. 



Origin of tho name Saint Croix— Du Luth, first Explorer— French Tost on the St. 
Croix— Pitt, an early pioneer— Early settlers at Saint Croix Falli— First women 
there — Marine Settlement — Joseph R. Brown's town site — Saint Croix County 
organized— Proprietors of Stillwater— A dead Negro woman— Pig's Eye, origin 
of name— Rise of Saint Paul— Dr. Williamson secures first school teacher for 
Saint Paul— Description of first school room— Saint Croix County re-organized 
—Rev. W. T. Boutwell, pioneer clergyman. 

The Saint Croix river, according to Le Sueur, 
named after a Frenchman who was drowned at 
its mouth, was one of the earliest throughfares 
from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. The first 
white man who directed canoes upon its waters 
was Du Luth, who had in 1679 explored Minne- 
sota. He thus describes his tour in a letter, first 
published by Harrisse : "In June, 1680, not be- 
ing satisfied, with having made my discovery by 
land, I took two canoes, with an Indian who was 
my interpreter, and four Frenchmen, to seek 
means to make it by water. With this view I 
entered a river which empties eight leagues from 
the extremity of Lake Superior, on the south 
side, where, after having cut some trees and 
broken about a hundred beaver dams, I reached 
the upper waters of the said river, and then I 
made a portage of half a league to reach a lake, 
the outlet of which fell into a very fine river, 
which took me down into the Mississippi. There 
I learned from eight cabins of Nadoueeioux that 
the Rev. Father Louis Hennepin, Recollect, now 
at the convent of Saint Germain, with two other 
Frenchmen had been robbed, and carried off as 
slaves for more than three hundred leagues by 
the Nadouecioux themselves." 

He then relates how he left two Frenchmen 
with his goods, and went with his interpreter and 
two Frenchmen in a canoe down the Mississippi, 
and after two days and two nights, found Henne- 
pin, Accault and Augelle. He told Hennepin 
that he must return with him through the country 
of the Fox tribe, and writes : " I preferred to re- 
trace my steps, manifesting to them [the Sioux] 
the just indignation I felt against them, rather 
than to remain after the violence they had done 



to the Rev. Father and the other two Frenchmen 
with him, whom I put in my canoes and brought 
them to Michilimackinack." 

After this, the Saint Croix river became a chan- 
nel for commerce, and Bellin writes, that before 
1755, the French had erected a fort forty leagues 
from its mouth and twenty from Lake Superior. 

The pine forests between the Saint Croix and 
Minnesota had been for several years a tempta- 
tion to energetic men. As early as November, 
1836, a Mr. Pitt went with a boat and a party of 
men to the Falls of Saint Croix to cut pine tim- 
ber, with the consent of the Chippeways but the 
dissent of the "United States authorities. 

In 1 837 while the treaty was being made by Com- 
missioners Dodge and Smith at Fort Snelling, on 
one Sunday Franklin Steele, Dr. Fitch, Jeremiah 
Russell, and a Mr. Maginnis left Fort Snelling 
for the Falls of Saint Croix in a birch bark canoe 
paddled by eight men, and reached that point 
about noon on Monday aud commenced a log 
cabin. Steele and Maginnis remained here, 
while the others, dividing into two parties, one 
under Fitch, and the other under Russell, search- 
ed for pine land. The first stopped at Sun Rise, 
while Russel went on to the Snake River. About 
the same time Robbinet and Jesse B. Taylor 
came to the Falls in the interest of B. F. Baker 
who had a stone trading house near Fort Snelling, 
since destroyed by fire. On the fifteenth of July, 
1838, the Palmyra, Capt. Holland, arrived at 
the Fort, with the official notice of the ratifica- 
tion of the treaties ceding the lands between the 
Saint Croix and Mississippi. 

She had on board C. A. Tuttle, L. W. Stratton 
and others, with the machinery for the projected 
mills of the Northwest Lumber Company at the 
Falls of Saint Croix, and reached that point on 
the seventeenth, the first steamboat to disturb the 
waters above Lake Saint Croix. The steamer 
Gypsy came to the fort on the twenty-first of 



WOMEN IN THE VALLEY OF THE SAINT CROIX. 



113 



October, with goods for the Chippeways, and was 
chartered for four hundred and fifty dollars, to 
carry them up to the Falls of Saint Croix. In 
passing through the lake, the boat grounded near 
a projected town called Stambaughville, after S. 
C. Stambaugh, the sutler at the fort. On the 
afternoon of the 26th, the goods were landed, as 
stipulated. 

The agent of the Improvement Company at the 
falls was Washington Libbey, who left in the fall 
of 1838, and was succeeded by Jeremiah Russell, 
Stratton acting as millwright in place of Calvin 
Tuttle. On the twelfth of December, Eussell and 
Stratton walked down the river, cut the first tree 
and built a cabin at Marine, and sold their claim. 

The first women at the Falls of Saint Croix were* 
a Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Sackett, and the daughter of a 
Mr. Young. During the winter of 1838-9, Jere- 
miah Eussell married a daughter of a respectable 
and gentlemanly trader, Charles II. Oakes. 

Among the first preachers were the Kev. W.T. 
Boutwell and Mr. Seymour, of the Chippeway 
Mission at Pokeguma. The Rev. A. Branson, of 
Prairie du Chien, who visited this region in 1838, 
wrote that at the mouth of Snake River he found 
Franklin Steele, with twenty-five or thirty men, 
cutting timber for a mill, and when he offered to 
preach Mr. Steele gave a cordial assent. 

On the sixteenth of August. Mr. Steele, Living- 
ston, and others, left the Falls of Saint Croix in a 
barge, and went around to Fort Snelling. 

The steamboat Fayette about the middle of 
May, 1839, landed sutlers' stores at Fort Snell- 
ing and then proceeded with several persons of 
intelligence to the Saint Croix river, who settled 
at Marine. 

The place was called after Marine in Madison 
county, Illinois, where the company, consisting 
of Judd, Hone and others, was formed to build 
a saw mill in the Saint Croix Valley. The mill 
at Marine commenced to saw lumber, on August 
24, 1839, the first in Minnesota. 

Joseph R. Brown, who since 1838, had lived at 
Chan Wakan, on the west side of Grey Cloud 
Island, this year made a claim near the upper 
end of the city of Stillwater, which he called 
Dahkotah, and was the first to raft lumber down 
the Saint Croix, as well as the first to represent 
the citizens of the valley in the legislature of 
Wisconsin. 



Until the year 1841, the jurisdiction of Craw- 
ford county, Wisconsin, extended over the delta 
of country between the Saint Croix and Missis- 
sippi. Joseph R. Brown having been elected as 
representative of the county, in the territorial 
legislature of Wisconsin, succeeded in obtaining 
the passage of an act on November twentieth, 
1841, organizing the county of Saint Croix, with 
Dahkotah designated as the county seat. 

At the time prescribed for holding a court in 
the new county, it is said that the judge of the 
district arrived, and to his surprise, found a 
claim cabin occupied by a Frenchman. Speedily 
retreating, he never came again, and judicial 
proceedings for Saint Croix county ended for 
several years. Phineas Lawrence was the first 
sheriff of this county. 

On the tenth of October, 1843, was commenced 
a settlement which has become the town of Still- 
water. The names of the proprietors were John 
MrKusick from Maine, Calvin Leach from Ver- 
mont. Elam Greeley from Maine, and Elias 
McKean from Pennsylvania. They immediately 
commenced the erection of a sawmill. 

John H. Fonda, elected on the twenty-second 
of September, as coroner of Crawford county, 
Wisconsin, asserts that he was once notified that 
a dead body was lying in the water opposite Pig's 
Eye slough, and immediately proceeded to the 
spot, and on taking it out, recognized it as the 
body of a negro woman belonging to a certain 
captain of the United States army then at Fort 
Crawford. The body was cruelly cut and bruised, 
but no one appearing to recognise it, a verdict of 
" Found dead," was rendered, and the corpse was 
buried. Soon after, it came to light that the 
woman was whipped to death, and thrown into 
the river during the night. 

The year that the Dahkotahs ceded their lands 
east of the Mississippi, a Canadian Frenchman 
by the name of Parrant, the ideal of an Indian 
whisky seller, erected a shanty in what is now 
the city of Saint Paul. Ignorant and overbear- 
ing he loved money more than his own soul. 
Destitute of one eye, and the other resembling 
that of a pig, he was a good representative of 
Caliban. Some one writing from his groggery 
designated it as " Pig's Eye." The reply to the 
letter was directed in good faith to " Pig's Eye " 



114 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



Some years ago the editor of the Saint Paul 
Press described the occasion in these words: 

■• Edmund Brisette, a clerkly Frenchman for 
those days, who lives, or did live a little while 
ago, on Lake Harriet, was one day seated at a 
table in Parrant's cabin, with pen and paper 
about to write a letter for Parrant (for Parrant, 
like Charlemagre, could not write) to a friend 
of the latter in Canada. The question of geog- 
raphy puzzled Brissette at the outset of the 
epistle ; where should he • date a letter from a 
place without a name ? He looked up inquir- 
ingly to Parrant, and met the dead, cold glare of 
the Pig's Eye fixed upon him, with an irresist- 
ible suggestiveness that was inspiration to 
Brisette." 

In 1842, the late Henry Jackson, of Mahkahto, 
settled at the same spot, and erected the first 
store on the height just above the lower landing, 
Boberts and Simpson followed, and opened 
small Indian trading shops. In 1846, the site of 
Saint Paul was chiefly occupied by a few shanties 
owned by "certain lewd fellows of the baser 
sort," who sold rum to the soldier and Indian. 
It was despised by all decent white men, and 
known to the Dahkotahs by an expression in 
their tongue which means, the place where they 
sell minne-wakan [supernatural water]. 

The chief of the Kaposiaband in 1846, was shot 
by his own brother in a drunken revel, but sur- 
viving the wound, and apparently alarmed at the 
deterioration under the influence of the modern 
harpies at Saint Paul, went to Mr. Bruce, Indian 
Agent, at Fort Snelling, and requested a mis- 
sionary. The Indian Agent in his report to gov- 
ernment, says : 

" The chief of the Little Crow's band, who re- 
sides below this place (Fort Snelling) about nine 
miles, in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
whiskey dealers, has requested to have a school 
established at his village. He says they are de- 
termined to reform, and for the future, will try 
to do better. I wrote to Doctor Williamson soon 
after the request was made, desiring him to take 
charge of the school. He has had charge of the 
mission school at Lac qui Parle for some years ; 
is well qualified, and is an excellent physician." 

In November, 1846, Dr. Williamson came from 
Lac qui Parle, as requested, and became a resi- 
dent of Kaposia. While disapproving of their 



practices, he felt a kindly interest in the whites 
of Pig's Eye, which place was now beginning to 
be called, after a little log chapel which had been 
erected at the suggestion of Kev. L. Galtier, ami 
called Saint Paul's. Though a missionary among 
the Dahkotahs, he was the first to take steps to 
promote the education of the whites and half- 
breeds of Minnesota. In the year 1847, he wrote 
to ex-Governor Slade, President of the National 
Popular Education Society, in relation to the 
condition of what has subsequently become the 
capital of the state. i 

In accordance with his request, Miss H. E. 
Bishop came to his mission-house at Kaposia, 
and, after a short time, was introduced by him 
to the citizens of Saint Paul. The first school- 
house in Minnesota besides those connected with 
the Indian missions, stood near the site of the 
old Brick Presbyterian church, corner of Saint 
Peter and Third street, and is thus described by 
the teacher : 

•'The school was commenced in a little log 
hovel, covered with bark, and chinked with mud, 
previously used as a blacksmith shop. On three 
sides of the interior of this humble log cabin, 
pegs were driven into the logs, upon which boards 
were laid for seats. Another seat was made by 
placing one end of a plank between the cracks 
of the logs, and the other upon a chair. This 
was for visitors. A rickety cross-legged table in 
the centre, and a hen's nest in one corner, com- 
pleted the furniture." 

Saint Croix county, in the year 1847, was de- 
tached from Crawford county, Wisconsin, and 
reorganized for judicial purposes, and Stillwater 
made the county seat. In the month of June 
the United States District Court held its session 
in the store-room of Mr. John McKusick ; Judge 
Charles Dunn presiding. A large number of 
lumbermen had been attracted by the pineries 
in the upper portion of the valley of Saint Croix, 
and Stillwater was looked upon as the center of 
the lumbering interest. 

The Kev. Mr. Boutwell, feeling that he could 
be more useful, left the Ojibways, and took up 
his residence near Stillwater, preaching to the 
lumbermen at the Falls of Saint Croix, Marine 
Mills, Stillwater, and Cottage Grove. In a letter 
speaking of Stillwater, he says, " Here is a little 
village sprung up like a gourd, but whether it is 
to perish as soon, Godonly knows." 



NAMES PBOPOSED FOB MINNESOTA TERRITORY. 



115 



CHAPTER XXI. 

EVENTS PREMMrNARY TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE MINNESOTA TERRITORY, 



Wisconsin State Boundaries— First Bill for the Organization of Minnesota Terri. 
tory, A. D. 1846— Change of Wisconsin Boundary— Memorial of Saint Croix 
Valley citizens — Various names proposed for the New Territory — Co 
Stillwater— H. H. Sibley elected Delegate to Congress.— Derivati. 
Minnesota. 






Three years elapsed from the time that the 
territory of Minnesota was proposed in Congress, 
to the final passage of the organic act. On the 
sixth of August, 1846, an act was passed by Con- 
gress authorizing the citizens of Wisconsin Ter- 
ritory to frame a constitution and form a state 
government. The act fixed the Saiut Louis river 
to the rapids, from thence south to the Saint 
Croix, and thence down that river to its junction 
with the Mississippi, as the western boundary. 

On the twenty -third of December, 1846, the 
delegate from Wisconsin, Morgan L. Martin, in- 
troduced a bill in Congress for the organization 
of a territory of Minnesota. This bill made its 
western boundary the Sioux and Red River of 
the North. On the third of March, 1847, per- 
mission was granted to Wisconsin to change her 
boundary, so that the western limit would pro- 
ceed due south from the first rapids of the Saint 
Louis river, and fifteen miles east of the most 
easterly point of Lake Saint Croix, thence to the 
Mississippi. 

A number in the constitutionax convention of 
Wisconsin, were anxious that Rum river should 
be a part of her western boundary, while citizens 
of the valley of the Saint Croix were desirous 
that the Chippeway river should be the limit of 
Wisconsin. The citizens of Wisconsin Territory, 
hi the valley of the Saint Croix, and about Fort 
Snelling, wished to be included in the projected 
new territory, and on the twenty-eighth of March, 
1848, a memorial signed by II. II. Sibley, Henry 
M. Rice, Franklin Steele, William R. Marshall, 
and others, was presented to Congress, remon- 
strating against the proposition before the con- 
vention to make Rum river a part of the bound- 
ary line of the contemplated state of Wisconsin. 



On the twenty-ninth of May, 1848, the act to 
admit Wisconsin changed the boundary line to 
the present, and as first defined in the enabling 
act of 1846. After the bill of Mr. Martin was 
introduced into the House of Representatives in 
1846 it was referred to the Committee on Terri- 
tories, of which Mr. Douglas was chairman. On 
the twentieth of January, 1847, he reported in 
favor of the proposed territory with the name 
of Itasca. On the seventeenth of February, be- 
fore the bill passed the House, a discussion arose 
in relation to the proposed name. Mr. Win- 
throp of Massachusetts proposed Chippewa as a 
substitute, alleging that this tribe was the prin- 
cipal in the proposed territory, which was not 
correct. Mr. J. Thompson of Mississippi disliked 
all Indian names, and hoped the territory would 
be called Jackson. Mr. Houston of Delaware 
thought that there ought to be one territory 
named after the "Father of his country," and 
proposed Washington. All of the names pro- 
posed were rejected, and the name in the original 
bill inserted. On the last day of the session, 
March third, the bill was called up in the Senate 
and laid on the table. 

When Wisconsin became a state the query 
arose whether the old territorial government did 
not continue in force west of the Saint Croix 
river. The first meeting on the subject of claim- 
ing territorial privileges was held in the building 
at Saint Paul, known as Jackson's store, near the 
corner of Bench and Jackson streets, on the 
bluff. This meeting was held in July, and a 
convention was proposed to consider their posi- 
tion. The first public meeting was held at Still- 
water on August fourth, and Messrs. Steele and 
Sibley were the only persons present from the 
west side of the Mississippi. This meeting is- 
sued a call for a general convention to take steps 
to secure an early territorial organization, to 
assemble on the twenty-sixth of the month at 



116 



EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



the same place. Sixty-two delegates answered 
the call, and among those present, were W. D. 
Phillips, J. W. Bass, A. Larpenteur, J. M. Boal, 
and others from Saint Paul. To the convention 
a letter was presented from Mr. Catlin, who 
claimed to be acting governor, giving his opinion 
that the Wisconsin territorial organization was 
still in force. The meeting also appointed Mr. 
Sibley to visit Washington and represent their 
views ; but the Hon. John H. Tweedy having 
resigned his office of delegate to Congress on 
September eighteenth, 1848, Mr. Catlin, who had 
made Stillwater a temporary residence, on the 
ninth of October issued a proclamation ordering 
a special election at Stillwater on the thirtieth, 
to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation. 
At this election Henry H. Sibley was elected as 
delegate of the citizens of the remaining portion 
of Wisconsin Territory. His credentials were 
presented to the House of Bepresentatives, and 
the committee to whom the matter was referred 
presented a majority and minority report; but 
the resolution introduced by the majority passed 
and Mr. Sibley took his seat as a delegate from 
Wisconsin Territory on the fifteenth of January, 
1849. 

Mr. H. M. Bice, and other gentlemen, visited 
Washington during the winter, and, uniting with 
Mr. Sibley, used all their energies to obtain the 
organization of a new territory. 

Mr. Sibley, in an interesting communication to 
the Minnesota Historical Society, writes : " When 
my credentials as Delegate, were presented by 
Hon. James Wilson, of New Hampshire, to the 



House of Bepresentatives, there was some curi- 
osity manifested among the members, to see what 
kind of a person had been elected to represent the 
distant and wild territory claiming representation 
in Congress. I was told by a New England mem- 
ber with whom I became subsequently quite inti- 
mate, that there was some disappointment when 
I made my appearance, for it was expected that 
the delegate from this remote region would make 
his debut, if not in full Indian costume, at least, 
with some peculiarities of dress and manners, 
characteristic of the rude and semi-civilized peo- 
ple who had sent him to the Capitol." 

The territory of Minnesota was named after 
the largest tributary of the Mississippi within its 
limits. The Sioux call the Missouri Minnesho- 
shay, muddy water, but the stream after which 
this region is named, Minne-sota. Some say that 
Sota means clear; others, turbid; Schoolcraft, 
bluish green. Nicollet wrote. " The adjective 
Sotah is of difficult translation. The Canadians 
translated it by a pretty equivalent word, brouille, 
perhaps more properly rendered into English by 
blear. I have entered upon this explanation be 
cause the word really means neither clear nor 
turbid, as some authors have asserted, its true 
meaning being found in the Sioux expression 
Ishtah-sotah, blear-eyed. " From the fact that the 
word signifies neither blue nor white, but the 
peculiar appearance of the sky at certain times, 
by some, Minnesota has been defined to mean the 
sky tinted water, which is certainly poetic, and the 
late Eev. Gideon H. Pond thought quite correct. 



MINNESOTA IN THE BEGINNING. 



117 



CHAPTER XXII. 

MINNESOTA FROM ITS ORGANIZATION AS A TERRITORY, A. D. 1849, TO A. D. 1854. 



Appearance of the Country, A. D. 1849 — Arrival of first Editor — Governor 
Ramsey arrives — Guest of H. H. Sibley — Proclamation issued — Governor 
Ramsey and H. M. Rice move to Saint Paul— Fourth of July Celebration — 
First election— Early »ewspapers— First Courts— First Legislature— Pioneer 
News Carrier's Address— Wedding at Fort Snelling— Territorial Seal— Scalp 
Dance at Stillwater— First Steamboat at Falls of Saint Anthony— Presbyterian 
Chapel burned— Indian council at Fort Snelling— First Steamboat above Saint 
Anthony — First boat at the Blue Earth River — Congressional election— Visit.of 
Fredrika Bremer — Indian newspaper— Other newspapers — Second Legislature 
—University of Minnesota— Teamster killed by Indians— Sioux Treaties— Third 
Legislature— Land slide at Stillwater— Death of first Editor— Fourth Legislature 
Baldwin School, now Macalester College — Indian fight in Saint Paul. 

On the third of March, 1849, the bill was passed 
by Congress for organizing the territory of 
Minnesota, whose boundary on the west, extended 
to the Missouri River. At this time, the region was 
little more than a wilderness. The west bank of 
the Mississippi, from the Iowa line to Lake 
Itasca, was unceded by the Indians. 

At Wapashaw, was a trading post in charge of 
Alexis Bailly, and here also resided the ancient 
voyageur, of fourscore years, A. Rocque. 

At the foot of Lake Pepin was a store house 
kept by Mr. F. S. Richards. On the west shore of 
the lake lived the eccentric Wells, whose wife 
was a bois brule, a daughter of the deceased 
trader, Duncan Graham. 

The two unfinished buildings of stone, on 
the beautiful bank opposite the renowned 
Maiden's Rock, and the surrounding skin lodges 
of his wife's relatives and friends, presented a 
rude but picturesque scene. Above the lake was 
a cluster of bark wigwams, the Dahkotah village 
of Raymneecha, now Red Wing, at which was a 
Presbyterian mission house. 

The next settlement was Kaposia, also an In- 
dian village, and the residence of a Presbyterian 
missionary, the Rev. T. S- Williamson, M. D. 
On the east side of the Mississippi, the first set- 
tlement, at the mouth of the St. Croix, was Point 
Douglas, then as now, a small hamlet. 

At Red Rock, the site of a former Methodist 
mission station, there were a few farmers. Saint 
Paul was just emerging from a collection of In- 
dian whisky shops and birch roofed cabins of 



half-breed voyageurs. Here and there a frame 
tenement w r as erected, and, under the auspices of 
the Hon. H. M. Rice, who had obtained an inter- 
est in the town, some warehouses were con- 
structed, and the foundations of the American 
House, a frame hotel, which stood at Third and 
Exchange street, were laid. In 1849, the popu- 
lation had increased to two hundred and fifty 
or three hundred inhabitants, for rumors had 
gone abroad that it might be mentioned in the 
act, creating the territory, as the capital 
of Minnesota. More than a month after 
the adjournment of Congress, just at eve, 
on the ninth of April, amid terrific peals of 
thunder and torrents of rain, the weekly steam 
packet, the first to force its way through the icy 
barrier of Lake Pepin, rounded the rocky point 
whistling loud and long, as if the bearer of glad 
tidings. Before she was safely moored to the 
landing, the shouts of the excited villagers were 
heard announcing that there was a territory of 
Minnesota, and that Saint Paul was the seat of 
government. 

Every successive steamboat arrival poured out 
on the landing men big with hope, and anxious 
to do something to mould the future of the new 
state. 

Xine days after the news of the existence of the 
territory of Minnesota was received, there arrived 
James M. Goodhue with press, type, and printing 
apparatus. A graduate of Amherst college, and 
a lawyer by profession, he wielded a sharp pen, 
and wrote editorials, which, more than anything 
else, perhaps, induced immigration. Though a 
man of some faults, one of the counties properly 
bears his name. On the twenty-eighth of April, 
he issued from his press the first number of the 
Pioneer. 

On the twenty - seventh of May, Alexander 
Ramsey, the Governor, and family, arrived at 
Saint Paul, but owing to the crowded state of pub- 



I IS 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



lie houses, immediately proceeded in the steamer 
to the establishment of the For Company, known 
as Mendota. at the junction of the Minnesota and 
Mississippi, and became the guest of the Hon. II. 
II. Sibley. 

On the first of June, Governor Kamsey, by pro- 
clamation, declared the territory duly organized, 
with the following officers : Alexander Ramsey, 
of Pennsylvania, Governor ; C. K. Smith, of Ohio, 
Secretary ; A. Goodrich, of Tennessee, Chief 
Justice ; D. Cooper, of Pennsylvania, and B. B. 
Meeker, of Kentucky, Associate Judges ; Joshua 
L. Taylor, Marshal ; H. L. Moss, attorney of the 
United States. 

On the eleventh of June, a second proclama- 
tion was issued, dividing the territory into three 
temporary j udicial districts. The first comprised 
the county of St. Croix ; the county of La Pointe 
and the region north and west of the Mississippi, 
and north of the Minnesota and of a line running 
due west from the headwaters of the Minnesota 
to the Missouri river, constituted the second ; 
and the country west of the Mississippi and south 
of the Minnesota, formed the third district. 
Judge Goodrich was assigned to the first, Meeker 
to the second, and Cooper to the third. A court 
was ordered to be held at Stillwater on the second 
Monday, at the Palls of St. Anthony on the third, 
and at Mendota on the fourth Monday of August. 

Until the twenty -sixth of June, Governor 
Ramsey and family had been guests of Hon. H. 
II. Sibley, at Mendota. On the afternoon of 
that day they arrived at St. Paul, in a birch-bark 
canoe, and became permanent residents at the 
capital. The house first occupied as a guber- 
natorial mansion, was a small frame building that 
stood on Third, between Robert and Jackson 
streets, formerly known as the New England 
House. 

A few days after, the Hon. H. M. Rice and 
family moved from Mendota to St. Paul, and oc- 
cupied the house he had erected on St. Anthony 
street, near the corner of Market. 

On the first of July, a land office was estab- 
lished at Stillwater, and A. Van Vorhes, after a 
few weeks, became the register. 

The anniversary of our National Independence 
was celebrated in a becoming manner at the cap- 
ital. The place selected for the address, was a 
grove that stood on the sites of the City Hall and 



the Baldwin School building, and the late Frank- 
lin Steele was the marshal of the day. 

On the seventh of July, a proclamation was is- 
sued, dividing the territory into seven council 
districts, and ordering an election to be held on 
the first day of August, for one delegate to rep- 
resent the people in the House of Representatives 
of the United States, for nine councillors and 
eighteen representatives, to constitute the Legis- 
lative Assembly of Minnesota. 

In this month, the Hon. H. M. Rice despatch- 
ed a boat laded with Indian goods from the 
the Falls of St. Anthony to Crow Wing, which 
was towed by horses after the manner of a canal 
boat. 

The election on the first of August, passed off 
with little excitement, Hon. H, H. Sibley being 
elected delegate to Congress without opposition. 
David Lambert, on what might, perhaps, be 
termed the old settlers' ticket, was defeated in 
St. Paul, by James M. Boal. The latter, on the 
night of the election, was honored with a ride 
through town on the axle and fore-wheels of an 
old wagon, which was drawn by his admiring 
but somewhat undisciplined friends. 

J. L. Taylor having declined the office of 
United States Marshal; A. M. Mitchell, of Ohio, 
a graduate of West Point, and colonel of a regi- 
ment of Ohio volunteers in the Mexican war, was 
appointed and arrived at the capital early in 
August. 

There were three papers published in the ter- 
ritory soon after its organization. The first was 
the Pioneer, issued on April twenty-eighth, 1849, 
under most discouraging circumstances. It was 
at first the intention of the witty and reckless 
editor to have called his paper " The Epistle of 
St. Paul." About the same time there was issued 
in Cincinnati, under the auspices of the late Dr. 
A. Randall, of California, the first number of 
the Register. The second number of the paper 
was printed at St. Paul, in July, and the office 
was on St. Anthony, between Washington and 
Market Streets, About the first of June, James 
Hughes, afterward of Hudson, Wisconsin, arrived 
with a press and materials, and established the 
Minnesota Chronicle. After an existence of a 
few weeks two papers were discontinued ; and, 
in their place, was issued the " Chronicle and 



DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPORARY CAPITOL. 



119 



Kegister," edited by Natkaiel McLean and John 
P. Owens. 

The first courts, pursuant to proclamation of 
the governor, were held in the month of August. 
At Stillwater, the court was organized on the 
thirteenth of the month, Judge Goodrich pre- 
siding, and Judge Cooper by courtesy, sitting on 
the bench. On the twentieth, the second judi- 
cial district held a court. The room used was 
the old government mill at Minneapolis. The 
presiding judge was B. B. Meeker ; the foreman 
of the grand jury, Franklin Steele. On the last 
Monday of the month, the court for the third 
judicial district was organized in the large stone 
warehouse of the fur company at Mendota. The 
presiding judge was David Cooper. Governor 
Eamsey sat on the right, and Judge Goodrich on 
the left. Hon. H. II. Sibley was the foreman of 
the grand jury. As some of the jurors could not 
speak the English language, W. II. Forbes acted 
as interpreter. The charge of Judge Cooper was 
lucid, scho'arly, and dignified. At the request 
of the grand jury it was afterwards published. 

On Monday, the third of September, the first 
Legislative Assembly convened in the " Central 
Hon -.""in Saint Paul, a building at the corner 
of Minnesota and Bench streets, facing the 
Mississippi river which answered the double 
purpose of capitol and hoteL On the first 
floor of the main building was the Secreta- 
ry's office and Representative chamber, and in 
the second story was the library and Council 
chamber. As the Hag was run up the staff in 
front of the house, a number of Indians sat on a 
rocky bluff in the vicinity, and gazed at what to 
them was a novel and perhaps saddening scene ; 
for if the tide of immigration sweeps in from the 
Pacific as it has from the Atlantic coast, they 
must soon dwindle. 

The legislature having organized, elected the 
following permanent officers: David Olmsted, 
President of Council; Joseph P.Brown, Secre- 
ary; II. A. Lambert, Assistant. In the House 
of Representatives, Joseph W. Furber was elect- 
ed Speaker: W. D. Phillips. Clerk: L. B. Wait, 
Assistant. 

On Tuesday afternoon, both houses assembled 
in the dining hall of the hotel, and after prayer 
was offered by Rev. E. D. Xeill, Governor Ram- 
sey delivered his message. The message was ably 



written, and its perusal afforded satisfaction at 
home and abroad. 

The first session of the legislature adjourned on 
the first of November. Among other proceed- 
ings of interest, was the creation of the following 
counties: Itasca, Wapashaw, Dahkotah, Wah- 
nahtah, Mahkahto, Pembina Washington, Ram- 
sey and Benton. The three latter counties com- 
prised the country that up to that time had been 
ceded by the Indians on the east side of the Mis- 
sissippi, Stillwater was declared the county seat 
of Washington, Saint Paul, of Ramsey, and '• the 
seat of justice of the county of Benton was to be 
within one-quarter of a mile of a point on the east 
side of the Mississippi, directly opposite the mouth 
of Sauk river." 

EVENTS OF A. D 1850. 

By the active exertions of the secretary of the 
territory, C. K. Smith, Esq., the Historical 
Society of Minnesota was incorporated at the 
first session of the legislature. The opening an- 
nual address was delivered in the then Methodist 
(now Swedenborgian) church at Saint Paul, on 
the first of January, 1850. 

The following account of the proceedings is 
from the Chronicle and Register. "The first 
public exercises of the Minnesota Historical 
Society, took place at the Methodist church, Saint 
Paul, on the first inst., and passed off highly 
creditable to all concerned. The day was pleasant 
and the attendance large. At the appointed 
hour, the President and both Vice-Presidents of 
the society being absent ; on motion of Hon. C. 
K. Smith, Hon. Chief Justice Goodrich was 
called to the chair. The same gentleman then 
moved that a committee, consisting of Messrs. 
Parsons K. Johnson, John A. Wakefield, and B. 
W. Branson, be appointed to wait upon the 
Orator of the day, Rev. Mr. JSTeill, and inform 
him that the audience was waiting to hear his 
address. 

•• Mr. Xeill was shortly conducted to the pulpit; 
and after an eloquent and approriate prayer by 
the Rev. Mr. Parsons, and music by the band, be 
proceeded to deliver his discourse upon the early 
French missionaries and Voyageurs into Minne- 
sota. We hope the society will provide for its 
publication at an early day. 

"After some brief remarks by Rev. Mr. 



li'O 



MXtLOitJSMH AND FlONJiUilRS OF MINNESOTA. 



Hobart, upon the objects and ends of history, the 
ceremonies were concluded with a prayer by 
that gentleman. The audience dispersed highly 
delighted with all that occurred." 

At this early period the Minnesota Pioneer 
issued a Carrier's New Year's Address, which 
was amusing doggerel. The reference to the 
future greatness and ignoble origin of the capital 
of Minnesota was as follows :— 

The cities on this river must be three, 
Two that are built and one that is to be. 
One, is the mart of all the tropics yield, 
The cane, the orange, and the cotton-field, 
And sends her ships abroad and boasts 
Her trade extended to a thousand coasts ; 
The other, central for the temperate zone, 
Garners the stores that on the plains are grown, 
A place where steamboats from all quarters, 

range, 
To meet and speculate, as 'twere on 'change. 
The third will be, where rivers confluent flow 
From the wide spreading north through plains 

of snow ; 
The mart of all that boundless forests give 
To make mankind more comfortably live, 
The land of manufacturing industry, 
The workshop of the nation it shall be. 
Propelled by this wide stream, you'll see 
A thousand factories at Saint Anthony : 
And the Saint Croix a hundred mills shall drive, 
And all its smiling villages shall thrive ; 
But then my town— remember that high bench 
"With cabins scattered over it, of French ? 
A man named Henry Jackson's living there, 
Also a man — why every one knows L. Kobair, 
Below Port Snelling, seven miles or so, 
And three above the village of Old Crow ? 
Pig's Eye ? Yes ; Pig's Eye ! That's the spot I 
A very funny name ; is't not ? 
Pig's Eye's the spot, to plant my city on, 
To be remembered by, when I am gone. 
Pig's Eye converted thou shalt be, like Saul : 
Thy name henceforth shall be Saint Paul. 

On the evening of New Year's day, at Port 
Snelling, there was an assemblage which is only 
seen on the outposts of civilization. In one of 
the stone edifices, outside of the wall, belonging 
to the United States, there resided a gentleman 
who had dwelt in Minnesota since the year 1819, 



and for many years had been in the employ of 
the government, as Indian interpreter. . In youth 
he had been a member of the Columbia Pur Com- 
pany, and conforming to the habits of traders, 
had purchased a Dahkotah wife who was wholly 
ignorant of the English language. As a family 
of children gathered around him he recognised 
the relation of husband and father, and consci- 
entiously discharged Ms duties as a parent. 1 1 is 
daughter at a proper age was sent to a boarding 
school of some celebrity, and on the night re- 
ferred to was married to an intelligent young 
American farmer. Among the guests present 
were the officers of the garrison in full uniform, 
with their wives, the United States Agent for 
the Dahkotahs, and family, the bois brules of 
the neighborhood, and the Indian relatives of the 
mother. The mother did not make her appear- 
ance, but, as the minister proceeded with the 
ceremony, the Dahkotah relatives, wrapped in 
their blankets, gathered in the hall and looked 
in through the door. 

The marriage feast was worthy of the occa- 
sion. In consequence, of the numbers, the 
officers and those of European extraction partook 
first ; then the bois brules of O jib way and Dah- 
kotah descent; and, finally, the native Ameri- 
cans, who did ample justice to the plentiful sup- 
ply spread before them. 

Governor Bamsey, Hon." H. H. Sibley, and the 
delegate to Congress devised at Washington, this 
winter, the territorial seal. The design was Falls 
of St. Anthony in the distance. An immigrant 
ploughing the land on the borders of the Indian 
country, full of hope, and looking forward to the 
possession of the hunting grounds beyond. An 
Indian, amazed at the sight of the plough, and 
fleeing on horseback towards the setting sun. 

The motto of the Earl of Dunraven, "Quae 
sursmn volo videre". (I wish to see what is above) 
was most appropriately selected by Mr. Sibley, 
but by the blunder of an engraver it appeared on 
the territorial seal, "Quo sursum velo videre," 
which no scholar could translate. At length was 
substituted, "L' Etoile du Nord," "Star of the 
North,"- while the device of the setting sun 
remained, and this is objectionable, as the State 
of Maine had already placed the North Star on 
her escutcheon, with the motto "Dirigo," "I 
guide." Perhaps some future legislature may 



SCALP DANCE IN STILLWATEB. 



121 



direct the first motto to be restored, and correctly 
engraved. 

In the montn of April, there was a renewal of 
hostilities between the Dahkotahs and Ojibways, 
on lands that ha'd been ceded to the United States. 
A war prophet at Red Wing, dreamed that he 
ought to raise a war party. . Announcing the fact, 
a number expressed their willingness to go on such 
an expedition. Several from the Kaposia village 
also joined the party, under the leadership of a 
worthless Indian, who had been confined in the 
guard-house at Fort Snelling, the year previous, 
for scalping his wife. 

Passing up the valley of the St. Croix, a rew 
miles above Stillwater the party discovered on the 
snow the marks of a keg and footprints. These 
told them that a man and woman of the Ojibways 
had been to some whisky dealer's, and were re- 
turning. Following their trail, they found on 
Apple river, about twenty miles from Stillwater, 
a band of Ojibways encamped in one lodge. Wait- 
ing till daybreak of Wednesday, April second, the 
Dahkotahs commenced firing on the unsuspecting 
inmates, some of whom were drinking from the 
contents of the whisky keg. The camp was com- 
posed of fifteen, and all were murdered and scalp- 
ed, with the exception of a lad, who was made a 
captive. 

On Thursday, the victors came to Stillwater, 
and danced the scalp dance around the captive 
boy, in the heat of excitement, striking him in the 
face with the scarcely cold and bloody scalps of 
his relatives. The child was then taken to Ka- 
posia, and adopted by the chief. Governor Ram- 
sey immediately took measures to send the boy to 
his friends. At a conference held at the Gov- 
ernor's mansion, the boy was delivered up, and, 
on being led out to the kitchen by a little son of 
the Governor, since deceased, to receive refresh- 
ments, he cried bitterly, seemingly more alarmed 
at being left with the whites than he had been 
while a captive at Kaposia. 

From the first of April the waters of the Mis- 
sissippi began to rise, and on the thirteenth, the 
lower floor of the warehouse, then occupied by 
William Constans, at the foot of Jackson street, 
St. Paul, was submerged. Taking advantage of 
the freshet, the steamboat Anthony Wayne, for a 
purse of two hundred dollars, ventured through 
the swift current above Fort Snelling, and reached 



the Falls of St. Anthony. The boat loft the fort 
after dinner, with Governor Eamsey and other 
guests, also the band of the Sixth Regiment on 
board, and reached the falls between three and 
four o'clock in the afternoon. The whole town, 
men, women and children, lined the shore as the 
boat approached, and welcomed this first arrival, 
with shouts and waving handkerchiefs. 

On the afternoon of May fifteenth, there might 
have been seen, hurrying through the streets of 
Saint Paul, a number of naked and painted braves 
of the Kaposia band of Dahkotahs, ornamented 
with all the attire of war, and panting for the 
scalps of their enemies. A few hours before, the 
warlike head chief of the Ojibways, young Hole- 
in-the-Day , having secreted his canoe in the retired 
gorge which leads to the cave in the upper sub- 
urbs, with two or three associates had crossed the 
river, and, almost in sight of the citizens of the 
town, had attacked a small party of Dahkotahs, 
and murdered and scalped one man. On receipt 
of the news, Governor Ramsey granted a parole 
to the thirteen Dahkotahs confined in Fort Snell- 
ing, for participating in the Apple river massacre. 

On the morning of the sixteenth of May, the 
first Protestant church edifice completed in the 
white settlements, a small frame bnilding, built 
for the Presbyterian church, at Saint Paul, was 
destroyed by fire, it being the first conflagration 
that had occurred since the organization of the 
territory. 

One of the most interesting events of the year 
1850, was the Indian council, at Fort Snelling. 
Governor Ramsey had sent runners to the differ- 
ent bands of the Ojibways and Dahkotahs, to 
meet him at the fort, for the purpose of en- 
deavouring to adjust their difficulties. 

On Wednesday, the twelfth of June, after 
much talking, as is customary at Indian councils, 
the two tribes agreed as they had frequently done 
before, to be friendly, and Governor Ramsey 
presenting to each party an ox. the council was 
dissolved. 

On Thursday, the Ojibways visited St. Paul 
for the first time, young Hole-in-the-Day being 
dressed in a coat of a captain of United States 
infantry, which had been presented to him at the 
fort. On Friday, they left in the steamer Gov- 
ernor Ramsey, which had been built at St. An- 
thony, and just commenced running between 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



that point, and Sauk Uapids, for their homes in 
the wilderness of the Upper Mississippi. 

The summer of 1850 was the commencement 
of the navigation of the Minnesota River by 
steamboats. With the exception of a steamer 
that maile a pleasure excursion as far as Shokpay, 
in 1841, no large vessels had ever disturbed the 
waters of this stream. In June, the "Anthony 
Wayne," which a few weeks before had ascended 
to the Falls of St. Anthony, made a trip. On 
the eighteenth of July she made a second trip, 
going almost to Mahkahto. The " Nominee " 
also navigated the stream for some distance. 

On the twenty-second of July the officers of 
the "Yankee," taking advantage of the high 
water, determined to navigate the stream as far 
as possible. The boat ascended to near the Cot- 
tonwood river. 

As the time for the general election in Septem- 
ber approached, considerable excitement was 
manifested. As there were no political issues 
before the people, parties were formed based on 
personal preferences. Among those nominated 
for delegate to Congress, by various meetings, 
were H. H. Sibley, the former delegate to Con- 
gress, David Olmsted, at that time engaged in 
the Indian trade, and A. M. Mitchell, the United 
States marshal. Mr. Olmsted withdrew his 
name before election day, and the contest was 
between those interested in Sibley and Mitchell. 
The friends of each betrayed the greatest zeal, 
and neither pains nor money were spared to in- 
sure success. Mr. Sibley was elected by a small 
majority. For the first time in the territory, 
soldiers at the garrisons voted at this election, 
and there was considerable discussion as to the 
propriety of such a course. 

Miss Fredrika Bremer, the well known Swedish 
novelist, visited Minnesota in the month of 
October, and was the guest of Governor Ramsey. 
During November, the Dahkotah Tawaxitku 
Kin, or the Dahkotah Friend, a monthly paper, 
was commenced, one-half in the Dahkotah and 
one-half in the English language. Its editor was 
the Rev. Gideon II. Pond, a Presbyterian mis- 
sionary, and its place of publication at Saint Paul. 
It was published for nearly two years, and, though 
it failed to attract the attention of the Indian 
mind, it conveyed to the English reader much 



correct information in relation to the habits, the 
belief, and superstitions, of the Dahkotahs. 

On the tenth of December, a new paper, owned 
and edited by Daniel A. Robertson, late United 
States marshal, of Ohio, and called the Minne- 
sota Democrat, made its appearance. 

During the summer there had been changes in 
the editorial supervision of the " Chronicle and 
Register." For a brief period it was edited by 
L. A. Babcock, Esq., who was succeeded by W. 
G. Le Due. 

About the time of the issuing of the Demo- 
crat, C. J. Henniss, formerly reporter for the 
United States Gazette, Philadelphia, became the 
editor of the Chronicle. 

The first proclamation for a thanksgiving day 
was issued in 1850 by the governor, and the 
twenty-sixth of December was the time appointed 
and it was generally observed. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1851. 

On Wednesday, January first, 1851, the second 
Legislative Assembly assembled in a three-story 
brick building, since destroyed by fire, that stood 
on St. Anthony street, between Washington and 
Franklin. D. B. Loomis was chosen Speaker of 
the Council, and M. E. Ames Speaker of the 
House. This assembly was characterized by 
more bitterness of feeling than any that has 
since convened. The preceding delegate election 
had been based on personal preferences, and 
cliques and factions manifested themselves at an 
early period of the session. 

The locating of the penitentiary at Stillwater, 
and the capitol building at St. Paul gave some 
dissatisfaction. By the efforts of J. W. North, 
Esq., a bill creating the University of Minnesota 
at or near the Falls of St. Anthony, was passed, 
and signed by the Governor. This institution, 
by the State Constitution, is now the State Uni- 
versity. 

During the session of this Legislature, the pub- 
lication of the " Chronicle and Register" ceased. 

About the middle of May, a war party of Dah- 
kotahs discovered near Swan River, an Ojibway 
with a keg of whisky. The latter escaped, with 
the loss of his keg. The war party, drinking the 
contents, became intoxicated, and, firing upon 
some teamrters they met driving their wagons 
with goods to the Indian Agency, killed one of 



LANDS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI CEDED. 



123 



them, Andrew Swartz, a resident of St. Paul. 
The news was conveyed to Tort Eipley, and a 
party of soldiers, with Hole-in-the-Day as a guide, 
started in pursuit of the murderers, but did not 
succeed in capturing them. Through the influ- 
ence of Little Six the Dahkotah chief, whose vil- 
lage was at (and named after him) Shok- 
pay, five of the offienders were arrested and 
placed in the guard-house at Fort Snelling. On 
Monday, June ninth, they left the fort in a wagon, 
guarded by twenty-five dragoons, destined for 
Sauk Eapids for trial. As they departed they all 
sang their death song, and the coarse soldiers 
amused themselves by making signs that they 
were going to be hung. On the first evening of 
the journey the five culprits encamped with the 
twenty-five dragoons. Handcuffed, they were 
placed in the tent, and yet at midnight they all 
escaped, only one being wounded by the guard. 
What was more remarkable, the wounded man 
was the first to bring the news to St. Paul. Pro- 
ceeding to Kaposia, his wound was examined by 
the missionary and physician, Dr. Williamson ; 
and then, fearing an arrest, he took a canoe and 
paddled up the Minnesota. The excuse offered 
by the dragoons was, that all the guard but one 
fell asleep. 

The first paper published in Minnesota, beyond 
the capital, was the St. Anthony Express, which 
made its appearance dining the last week of 
April or May. 

The most important event of the year 1851 
was the treaty with the Dahkotahs, by winch the 
west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the 
Minnesota Kiver were opened to the hardy immi- 
grant. The commissioners on the part of the 
United States were Luke Lea. Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs, and Governor Eamsey. The 
place of meeting for the upper bands was Trav- 
erse des Sioux. The commission arrived there 
on the last of June, but were obliged to wait 
many days for the assembling of the various bands 
of Dahkotahs. 

On the eighteenth of July, all those expected 
having arrived, the Sissetoans and Wahpaytoan 
Dahkotahs assembled in grand council with the 
United States commissioners. After the usual 
f eastings and speeches, a treaty was concluded 
on Wednesday, July twenty-third. The pipe 
having been smoked by the commissioners, Lea 



and Eamsey, it was passed to the chiefs. The 
paper containing the treaty was then read in 
English and translated into the Dahkotah by the 
Eev. S. E. Eiggs, Presbyterian Missionary among 
this people. This finished, the chiefs came up 
to the secretary's table and touched the pen; the 
white men present then witnessed the document, 
and nothing remained but the ratification of the 
United States Senate to open that vast country 
for the residence of the hardy immigrant. 

During* the first week in August, a treaty was 
also concluded beneath an oak bower, on Pilot 
Knob, Mendota, with the M'dewakantonwan and 
Wahpaykootay bands of Dahkotahs. About sixty 
of the chiefs and principal men touched the pen, 
and Little Crow, who had been hi the mission- 
school at Lac qui Parle, signed his own name. 
Before they separated, Colonel Lea and Governor 
Eamsey gave them a few words of advice on 
various subjects connected with their future well- 
being, but particularly on the subject of educa- 
tion and temperance. The treaty was interpret- 
ed to them by the Eev. G. H. Pond, a gentleman 
who was conceded to be a most correct speaker 
of the Dahkotah tongue. 

The day after the treaty these lower bands 
received thirty thousand dollars, which, by the 
treaty of 1837, was set apart for education ; but, 
by the misrepresentations of interested half- 
breeds, the Indians were made to believe that 
it ought to be given to them to be employed as 
they pleased. 

The next week, with their sacks filled with 
money, they thronged the streets of St. Paul, 
purchasing whatever pleased their fancy. 

On the seventeenth of September, a new paper 
was commenced in St. Paul, under the auspices 
of the "Whigs," and John P. Owens became 
editor, which relation he sustained until the fall 
of 1857. 

The election for members of the legislature 
and county officers occurred on the fourteenth of 
October ; and, for the first time, a regular Demo- 
cratic ticket was placed before the people. The 
parties called themselves Democratic and Anti- 
organization, or Coalition. 

In the month of ^November Jerome Fuller ar- 
rived, and took the place of Judge Goodrich as 
Chief Justice of Minnesota, who was removed ; 
and, about the same time, Alexander Wilkin was 



124 



EXPLOBEItS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



appointed secretary of the territory in place of 
C. K. Smith. 

The eighteenth of December, pursuant to 
proclamation, -was observed as a day of Thanks- 
giving. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1852. 

The third Legislative Assembly commenced its 
sessions in one of the edifices on Third below 
Jackson street, which became a portion of the 
Merchants' Hotel, on the seventh of January, 
1852. 

This session, compared with the previous, 
formed a contrast as great as that between a 
boisterous day in March and a calm June morn- 
ing. The minds of the population were more 
deeply interested in the ratification of the treaties 
made with the Dahkotahs, than in political dis- 
cussions. Among other legislation of interest 
was the creation of Hennepin county. 

On Saturday, the fourteenth of February, a 
dog-train arrived at St. Paul from the north, 
with the distinguished Arctic explorer, Dr. Eae. 
He had been in search of the long-missing Sir 
John Franklin, by way of the Mackenzie river, 
and was now on his way to Europe. 

On the fourteenth of May, an interesting lusus 
naturae occurred at Stillwater. On the prairies, 
beyond the elevated bluffs which encircle the 
business portion of the town, there is a lake which 
discharges its waters through a ravine, and sup- 
plied McKusick's mill. Owing to heavy rains, 
the hills became saturated with water, and the 
lake very full. Before daylight the citizens heard 
the " voice of many waters," and looking out, saw 
rushing down through the. ravine, trees, gravel 
and diluvium. Nothing impeded its course, and 
as it issued from the ravine it spread over the 
town site, covering up barns and small tenements, 
and, continuing to the lake shore, it materially 
improved the landing, by a deposit of many tons 
of earth. One of the editors of the day, alluding 
to the fact, quaintly remarked, that " it was a 
very extraordinary movement of real estate." 

During the summer, Elijah Terry, a young 
man who had left St. Paul the previous March, 
and went to Pembina, to act as teacher to the 
mixed bloods in that vicinity, was murdered un- 
der distressing circumstances. "With a bois bride 
he had started to the woods on the morning of 



his death, to hew timber. While there he was 
fired upon by a small party of Dahkotahs ; a ball 
broke his arm, and he was pierced with arrows. 
II is scalp was wrenched from his head, and was 
afterwards seen among Sisseton Dahkotahs, near 
Big Stone Lake. 

About the last of August, the pioneer editor 
of Minnesota, James M. Goodhue, died. 

At the November Term of the United States 
District Court, of Ramsey county, a Dahkotah, 
named Yu-ha-zee, was tried for the murder of a 
German woman. With others, she was travel- 
ing above Shokpay, when a party of Indians, of 
whom the prisoner was one, met them; and, 
gathering about the wagon, were much excited. 
The prisoner punched the woman first with his 
gun, and, being threatened by one of the party, 
loaded and fired, killing the woman and wound- 
ing one of the men. 

On the day of his trial he was escorted from 
Fort Snelling by a company of mounted dragoons 
in full dress. It was an impressive scene to 
witness the poor Indian half hid in his blanket, 
in" a buggy with the civil officer, surrounded with 
all the pomp and circumstance of war. The jury 
found him guilty. On being asked if he had 
anything to say why sentence of death should 
not be passed, he replied, through the interpreter, 
that the band to which he belonged would remit 
their annuities if he could be released. To this 
Judge Hayner, the successor of Judge Fuller, 
replied, that he had no authority to release 
him; and, ordering him to rise, after some 
appropriate and impressive remarks, he pro- 
nounced the first sentence of death ever pro- 
nounced by a judicial officer in Minnesota. The 
prisoner trembled while the judge spoke, and 
was a piteous spectacle. By the statute of Min- 
nesota, then, one convicted of murder could not 
be executed until twelve months had elapsed, and 
he was confined until the governor of the ter- 
orrity should by warrant order his execution. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1853. 

The fourth Legislative Assembly convened on 
the fifth of January, 1853, in the two story brick 
edifice at the corner of Third and Minnesota 
streets. The Council chose Martin McLeod as 
presiding officer, and the House Dr. David Day, 



INDIAN FIGHT IN STREETS OF ST. PAUL. 



125 



Speaker. Governor Ramsey's message was an 
interesting document. 

The Baldwin school, now known as Macalester 
College, was incorporated at this session of the 
legislature, and was opened the following June. 

On the ninth of April, a party of Ojibways 
killed a Dahkotah. at the village of Shokpay. A 
war party, from Kaposia, then proceeded up the 
valley of the St. Croix, and Killed an Ojibway. 
On the morning of the twenty-seventh, a band 
of Ojibway warriors, naked, decked, and fiercely 
gesticulating, might have been seen in the busiest 
street of the capital, in search of their enemies. 
Just at that time a small party of women, and 
one man, who had lost a leg in the battle of Still- 
water, arrived in a canoe from Kaposia. at the 
Jackson street landing. Perceiving the Ojib- 
ways, they retreated to the building then known 
as the " Pioneer " office, and the Ojibways dis- 
charging a volley through the windows, wounded 
a Dahkotah woman who soon died. For a short 
time, the infant capital presented a sight 
similar to that witnessed in ancient days "in 
Hadley or Deerfield. the then frontier towns of 
Massachusetts. Messengers were despatched to 
Fort Snelling for the dragoons, and a party of 
citizens mounted on horseback, were quickly in 
pursuit of those who with so much boldness had 
sought the streets of St. Paul, as a place to 
avenge their wrongs. The dragoons soon fol- 
lowed, with Indian guides scenting the track of 
the Ojibways, like bloodhounds. The next day 
they discovered the transgressors, near the Falls 
of St. Croix. The Ojibways manifesting what 
was supposed to be an insolent spirit, the order 
was given by the lieutenant in command, to lire, 
and he whose scalp was afterwards daguerreo 



typed, and which was engraved for Graham's 
Magazine, wallowed in gore. 

During the summer, the passenger, as he stood 
on the hurricane deck of any of the steamboats, 
might have seen, on a scaffold on the bluffs in 
the rear of Kaposia, a square box covered with a 
coarsely fringed red cloth. Above it was sus- 
pended a piece of the Ojibway "s scalp, whose 
death had caused the affray in the streets of St. 
Paul. Within, was the body of the woman who 
had been shot in the '-Pioneer" biulding, while 
seeking refuge. A scalp suspended over the 
corpse is supposed to be a consolation to the soul, 
and a great protection in the journey to the spirit 
land. 

On the accession of Pierce to the presidency of 
the United States, the officers appointed under 
the Taylor and Fillmore administrations were 
removed, and the following gentlemen substitu- 
ted : Governor. W. A. Gorman, of Indiana; Sec- 
retary. J. T. Rosser, of Virginia ; Chief Justice. 
W. II. Welch, of Minnesota; Associates. Moses 
Sherburne, of Maine, and A. G. Chatiield, of 
Wisconsin. One of the first official acts of the 
second Governor, was the making of a treaty 
with the Winnebago Indians at Watab. Benton 
county, for an exchange of country. 

On the twenty-ninth of June, D. A. Robertson, 
who by his enthusiasm and earnest advocacy of 
its principles had done much to organize the 
Democratic party of Minnesota, retired from the 
editorial chair and was succeeded by David Olm- 
sted. 

At the election held in October, Henry M. 
Rice and Alexander Wilkin were candidates 
for deligate to Congress. The former was elect- 
ed by a decisive majority. 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

EVENTS FROM A. D. 1854 TO THE ADMISSION OF MINNESOTA TO THE UNION. 



Fifth Legislature— Execution of Yuhazee— Sixth Legislature— First bridge over the 
Mississippi— Arctic Explorer — Seventh Legislature— Indian girl killed near 
Bloomington Ferry — Eighth Legislature — Attempt to Remove the Capital — 
Special Session of the Legislature — Convention to frame a State Constitution — 
Admission of Minnesota to the Union. 

The fifth session of the legislature was com- 
menced in the building just completed as the 
Capitol, on January fourth, 1854. The President 
of the Council was S. B. Olmstead, and the Speak- 
er of the House of Representatives was N. C. D. 
Taylor. 

Governor Gorman delivered his first annual 
message on the tenth, and as his predecessor, 
urged the importance of railway communications, 
and dwelt upon the necessity of fostering the in- 
terests of education, and of the lumbermen. 

The exciting bill of the session was the act in- 
corporating the Minnesota and Northwestern 
Eailroad Company, introduced by Joseph R. 
Brown. It was passed after the hour of midnight 
on the last day of the session. Contrary to the 
expectation of his friends, the Governor signed 
the bill. 

On the afternoon of December twenty-seventh, 
the first public execution in Minnesota, in accord- 
ance with the forms of law, took place. Yu-ha- 
zee, the Dahkotah who had been convicted in 
November, 1852, for the murder of a German 
woman, above Shokpay, was the individual. 
The scaffold was erected on the open space be- 
tween an inn called the Franklin House and the 
rear of the late Mr. J. "W. Selby's enclosure 
in St. Paul. About two o'clock, the prisoner, 
dressed in a white shroud, left the old log pris- 
on, near the court house, and entered a carriage 
with the officers of the law. Being assisted up 
the steps that led to the scaffold, he made a few 
remarks in his own language, and was then exe- 
cuted. Numerous ladies sent in a petition to 
the governor, asking the pardon of the Indian, 
to which that officer in declining made an appro- 
priate reply. 



EVENTS OF A. D. 1855. 

The sixth session of the legislature convened 
on the third of January, 1855. "W. P. Murray 
was elected President of the Council,. and James 
S. N orris Speaker of the House. 

About the last of January, the two houses ad- 
journed one day, to attend the exercises occa- 
sioned by the opening of the first bridge of 
any kind, over the mighty Mississippi, from 
Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. It was at 
Falls of Saint Anthony, and made of wire, and 
at the time of its opening, the patent for the 
land on which the west piers were built, had not 
been issued from the Land Office, a striking evi- 
dence of the rapidity with which the city of 
Minneapolis, which now surrounds the Falls, has 
developed. 

On the twenty-ninth of March, a convention 
was held at Saint Anthony, which led to the 
formation of the Republican party of Minnesota. 
This body took measures for the holding of a 
territorial convention at St. Paul, which con- 
vened on the twenty-fifth of July, and William 
R. Marshall was nominated as delegate to Con- 
gress. Shortly after the friends of Mr. Sibley 
nominated David Olmsted and Henry M. Rice, 
the former delegate was also a candidate. The 
contest was animated, and resulted in the elec- 
tion of Mr. Rice. 

About noon of December twelfth, 1855, a four- 
horse vehicle was seen driving rapidly through 
St. Paul, and deep was the interest when it was 
announced that one of the Arctic exploring party, 
Mr. James Stewart, was on his way to Canada 
With relics of the world -renowned and world- 
mourned Sir John Franklin. Gathering together 
the precious fragments found on Montreal Island 
and vicinity, the party had left the region of ice- 
bergs on the ninth of August, and after a con- 
tinued land journey from that time, had reached 



PBOPOSED REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVEBXJIEWT. 



127 



Saint Paul on that day, en route to the Hudson 
Bay Company's quarters in Canada. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1856. 

The seventh session of the Legislative Assem- 
bly was begun on the second of January, 1856, 
and again the exciting question was the Minne- 
sota and Northwestern Railroad Company. 

John B. Brisbin was elected President of the 
Council, and Charles Gardner, Speaker of the 
House. 

This year was comparatively devoid of interest. 
The citizens of the territory were busily engaged 
in making claims in newly organized counties, 
and in enlarging the area of civilization. 

On the twelfth of June, several O jib ways 
entered the farm house of Mr. Whallon, who re- 
sided in Hennepin county, on the banks of the 
Minnesota, a mile below the Bloomington ferry. 
The wife of the farmer^ a friend, and three child- 
ren, besides a little Dahkotah girl, who had been 
brought up in the mission-house at Kaposia. and 
so changed in manners that her origin was 
scarcely perceptible, were sitting in the room 
when the Indians came in. Instantly seizing 
the little Indian maiden, they threw her out of 
the door, killed and scalped her, and fled before 
the men who were near by, in the field, could 
reach the house. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1857. 

The procurement of a state organization, and 
a grant of lands for railroad purposes, were the 
topics of political interest during the year 1857. 

The eighth Legislative Assembly convened at 
the capital on the seventh of January, and J. B. 
Brisbin was elected President of the Council, and 
J. W. Purber, Speaker of the House. 

A bill changing the seat of government to 
Saint Peter, on the Minnesota River, caused 
much discussion. 

On Saturday, February twenty -eighth, Mr. 
Balcombe offered a resolution to report the bill 
for the removal of the seat of government, and 
should Mr. Rolette, chairman of the committee, 
fail, that "W. W. Wales, of said committee, report 
a copy of said bill. 

Mr. Setz.er, after the reading of the resolution, 
moved a call of the Council, and Mr. Rolette was 
found to be absent. The chair ordered the ser- 
geant at arma to report Mr Rolette in his seat. 



Mr. Balcombe moved that further proceedings 
under the call be dispensed with ; which did not 
prevail. From that time until the next Thursday 
afternoon, March the fifth, a period of one hun- 
dred and twenty-three hours, the Council re- 
mained in their chamber without recess. At that 
time a motion to adjourn prevailed. On Friday 
another motion was made to dispense with the 
call of the Council, which did not prevail. On 
Saturday, the Council met, the president declared 
the call still pending. At seven and a half p. m., 
a committee of the House was announced. The 
chair ruled, that no communication from the 
House could be received while a call of the Coun- 
cil was pending, and the .committee withdrew. 
A motion was again made during the last night 
of the session, to dispense with all further pro- 
ceedings under the call, which prevailed, with 
one vote only in the negative. 

Mr. Ludden then moved that a committee be 
appointed to wait on the Governor, and inquire if 
he had any further communication to make to 
the Council. 

Mr. Lowry moved a call of the Council, which 
was ordered, and the roll being called, Messrs. 
Rolette, Thompson and Tillotson were absent. 

At twelve o "clock at night the president re- 
sumed the chair, and announced that the time 
limited by law for the continuation of the session 
of the territorial legislature had expired, and he 
therefore declared the Council adjourned and the 
seat of government remained at Saint Paul. 

The excitement on the capital question was in- 
tense, and it was a strange scene to see members 
of the Council, eating and sleeping in the hall of 
legislation for days, waiting for the sergeant-at- 
arins to report an absent member in his seat. 

On the twenty-third of February, 1857, an act 
passed the United States Senate, to authorize 
the people of Minnesota to form a constitution, 
preparatory to their admission into the Union 
on an equal footing with the original states. 

Governor Gorman called a special session 
of the legislature, to take into consideration 
measures that would give efficiency to the act. 
The extra session convened on April twenty- 
seventh, and a message was transmitted by Sam- 
uel Medary, who had been appointed governor 
in place of W. A. Gorman, whose term of office 



128 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 



had expired. The extra session adjourned on 
the twenty-third of May ; and in accordance 
with the provisions of the enabling act of Con- 
gress, an election was held on the first Monday 
in June, for delegates to a convention which was 
to assemble at the capitol on the second Monday 
in July. The election resulted, as was thought, 
in giving a majority of delegates to the Republi- 
can party. 

At midnight previous to the day fixed for the 
meeting of the convention, the Republicans pro- 
ceeded to the capitol, because the enabling act 
had not fixed at what hour on the second Mon- 
day the convention should assemble, and fear- 
ing that the Democratic delegates might antici- 
pate them, and elect the officers of the body. 
A little before twelve, A. M., on Monday, the 
secretary of the territory entered the speaker's 
rostrum, and began to call the body to order; 
and at the same time a delegate, J. W. North, 
who had in his possession a written request from 
the majority of the delegates present, proceeded 
to do the same thing. The secretary of the ter- 
ritory put a motion to adjourn, and the Demo- 
cratic members present voting in the affirmative, 
they left the hall. The Republicans, feeling that 
they were in the majority, remained, and in due 
time organized, and proceeded with the business 
specified in the enabling act, to form a constitu- 
tion, and. take all necessary steps for the estab- 
lishment of a state government, in conformity 
with the Federal Constitution, subject to the 
approval and ratification of the people of the 
proposed state. 

After several days the Democratic wing also 
organized in the Senate chamber at the capitol, 
and, claiming to be the true body, also proceeded 
to form a constitution. Both parties were re- 
markably orderly and intelligent, and everything 
was marked by perfect decorum. After they had 
been in session some weeks, moderate counsels 



prevailed, and a committee of conference was 
appointed from each body, which resulted in 
both adopting the constitution framed by the 
Democratic wing, on the twenty-ninth of Aug- 
gust. According to the provision of the consti- 
tution, an election was held for state officers 
and the adoption of the constitution, on the 
second Tuesday, the thirteenth of October. The 
constitution was adopted by almost a unanimous 
vote. It provided that the territorial officers 
should retain their offices until the state was ad- 
mitted into the Union, not anticipating the 
long delay which was experienced. 

The first session of the state legislature com- 
menced on the first Wednesday of December, at 
the capitol, in the city of Saint Paul ; and during 
the month elected Henry M. Rice and James 
Shields as their Representatives in the United 
States Senate. 

EVENTS OF A. D. 1858. 

On the twenty-ninth of January, 1858, Mr. 
Douglas submitted a bill to the United States 
Senate, for the admission of Minnesota into the 
Union. On the first of February, a discussion 
arose on the bill, in which Senators Douglas, 
Wilson, Gwin, Hale, Mason, Green, Brown, and 
Crittenden participated. Brown, of Mississippi, 
was opposed to the admission of Minnesota, un- 
til the Kansas question was settled. Mr. Crit- 
tenden, as a Southern man, could not endorse ill . 
that was said by the Senator from Mississippi ; 
and his words of wisdom and moderation during 
this day's discussion, were worthy of remem- 
brance. On April the seventh, the bill passed 
the Senate with only three dissenting votes ; and 
in a short time the House of Representatives 
concurred, and on May the eleventh, the Presi- 
dent approved, and Minnesota was fully rec- 
ognized as one of the United States of America. 



INDEX. 



INDEX 



EXPLORERS AND PIONEEKS OF MINNESOTA. 



PAGE 

Abraham, Plains of 1 

Accault (Ako) Michael, compan- 
ion of Hennepin . 10. 1- . 20, 2 <, 24, 26 

Described by La Salle 18 

Leader of Mississippi Explo- 
rations 19 

Achiganaga arrested by Perrot. . 12 
Tried for murder before Du 

Luth is 

Death of 14 

Aiouez, see Ioways. 

Ako, see Accault. 

Albane', Jesuit missionary at 

Sault St. Marie 11 

Allouez, Jesuit missionary visits 

La Pointe 4 

At Lake Nepigon 4 

Meets the Sioux at the ex- 
tremity of Lake Superior: 4 

Describes the Sioux 4 

Ames, M. K.. early lawyer 122 

Anderson, Captain in British ser- 
vice 81 

Anderson, trader under Dickson, 

at Leech Lake 77 

Andrews, Joseph, killed b\ Bis- 

seton Sioux 92 

Aqoipaguetin. Sioux chief men- 
tioned by Hennepin 21, 27 

Asslneboines 2,9,23.43,46, 65 

Assineboiue Kiver, called by the 

French St. Charles 59 

Angel le, Anthony, alias Picard 
du Gay, associate of Hennepin 

10, 18,23,24, 26 
Ayer, Frederick, missionary to 

Ojibways Ki7 

Ayoes, see Iowavs. 

Baker, B. F., Indian trader 112 

Bailly, Alexis, drives cattle to 

Pembina > 93 

Member of Legislature 93 

Balcombe, St. A. D 127 

Baldwin School. now Macalester 

College, incorporated I2S 

Opened in June, 1853 125 

Balfour, Captain 82 

Bass, J. W., earlv settler at St. 

Paul ' 116 

Bear dance of the Sioux de- 
scribed 83 

Beauharnois, Governor, favors 

Verendrye G8 

Beaujeu, urged bv Langlade of 

Wisconsin, defeats Braddock.. 01 
Bellin,Geographer,notices Oclia- 

gachs* map 87 

Alludes to Fort Eouge on Ited 

river 87 

Fort on St. Croix Kiver 112 

Bellinzany, of "Paris" receives 
specimens of Lake Superior 

copper 

Beltrami, G. C. notice of 93 

Arrives at Fort Snelling 93 

Accompanies Major Long. ... 94 
Discovers northern sources 

of the Mississippi 94 

Berthot, Colin, murdered at 

Keweenaw 

Bishop, Harriet E., establishes 

school in St. Paul 114 

Black Kiver, called Chabadeba.. 18 
Blue Earth Kiver explored ...46, 47 

Supposed mines at 47 

Fort on 47 

D'Fva<|ue visits 48 



PAGE 1 TO 128. 

PAGE 

Boal, J. M., early settler at St. 

Paul 116, 118 

Bobe, exposes La Hontan's mis- 
statements 36 

Bottineau, J. B., exposed in a 

snowstorm 102 

Boisguillot. early trader on Wis- 
consin and Mississippi 32 

Boucher, Marie, moiher of Ver- 
endrye 58 

Boucher. Pierre, described Lake 

Superior copper mines 7 

Father ot Sieur de Le Per- 

riere 51 

Boucherville. officer at Lake 

Pepin 53 

Goods furnished to Indians.. 54 

Captured by Indians 54 

Boudor, trades with the Sioux ... 48 
Attacked by the Foxes... ... 49 

Bougainville, mentions Indian 

tribes seen by Verendrye 00 

Bout well, Kev. W. T„ Ojibwav 

missionary 100. 113 

Removes to Stillwater Ill 

Notice of Stillwater 114 

Braddock's defeat Gl 

Bradlev, oneof Pike's corporals 7G 
Bremer. Fi edricka. Swedish nov- 
elist in Minnesota 122 

Brisbin, J. B 127 

Brisbois, Lieut, in British service 81 

Brlssette, Edward, notice of 114 

Brown, Joseph K., drummer boy 

at Fort Snelling 95 

Trading post at Lake Trav- 
erse 102 



Member of Wisconsin 1 

lature 113 

Makes a town site near Still- 
water 113 

Secretary of Council. 1849. ... 119 

Bruce, trader at Green Bay 63 

Bruiison, Kev. A., Methodist 

Missionary 111, 113 

Branson. 1?. W 119 

Brusky, Charles, Indian trader.. 77 
Bulger, Capt., surrenders Fort 

McKay 81 

Bulwer. Sir K. L.. translation of 

Sioux Death Song 67 

Cadillac, La Motte.on route to the 

Pacific ."G 

In Command at Detroit .... 4* 

Alludes to Le Sueur 48 

Alludes to Boudor's expedi- 
tion 48 

On the* selling of brandy to 

Indians 16 

Cameron, Murdock, sells liquor 

to Indians 74 

Campbell, Colin, interpreter 92 

Carver's Cave mentioned .. .66, 78, 84 
Carver, Capt. Jonathan, early life 

of 6t 

In battle of Lake George 64 

Arrival at Mackinaw 6t 

Describes the fort at Green 

Bay 64 

Visits Winnebago Village.... 64 

Visits Fox Village 64 

Describes Prairie duOhien... 64 
Describes earth works at Lake 

Pepin 65 

Describes cave at St. Paul .... 66 



PAGE 

Describes Falls of St.Anthony 66 

Describes Minnesota river. . . 66 

Describes funeral rites 67 

Reports speech of Sioux chief 67 

Speech versified by Schiller.. G7 
Translation by Bulwer and 

Herschell 67, 68 

His alleged deed for Sioux 

land 70 

II. S. Senate rejects his claims 70 

Grandsons of, visit Minnesota 82 

Caumont. Sieur de 32 

Chagouaniikon visited by Grosel- 

liers and Kadisson 2 

Charlevoix on La Hontan's fabri- 
cations 3C 

On Le Sueur's mining opera- 
tions 45 

Chatfield, A.G., Territorial Judge 125 
Chippewav.lndians.see Ojibways 
Chouart, Medard, see Groselliers 

Christinaux mentioned 43, 44 

Clark, Lt. Nathan, at Fort Snell- 
ing .. po 

Letters from Gen. Gibson.... !4 

Arrests Sioux 98 

Coe, Be v. Al van, visits Fort Snell- 
ing in 1829 106 

Constans, William 121 

Convention to form a State Con- 
stitution 128 

Cooper, David, Territorial Judge. 118 
Copper mines of Lake Superior, 

Early Notice of 7 

A. I) lii:Gdescribed by Sagard 7 

A.D. 1640 described by Boucher 7 

01 isic Royal 7 

Of Ontanagon T 

Copper sent to Bellinzany, in 

Paris 7 

Copper mines spoken of by Talon, 

A.D. 1669 7 

Coo us» rd, Father, accompanies 

\ erendrye 60 

Mentions Rocky Mountain 

Indians 60 

Eulogy of St. Pierre 61 

Cratte, Oliver 102 

Dakotahs or Dalikotahs, see 

Sioux 

D'Avagour, Governor of Canada, 

opinion of the region 

West of Lake Superior -.. 1 

Day. Dr. David 124 

De Corbiere, Lieut, at Lake 

Champlain 62 

De Gonor, Jesuit, visits Lake 

Pepin 51, 58 

Returns to Canada 54 

Converses with Verendrye... 58 
De la Barre, Governor, notices 

DuLuth 11 

Sends Perrot to the Sioux.... 29 
De la Jemeraye, see Jemeraye.. 
De la Tour, Jesuits missionary.. 13 
De la Tourette, Greysolon, broth- 
er of DuLuth 16 

De Liguery, see Lignery 

De Lusignan, visits the Sioux — 75 
Denis, Canadian voyageur, joins 

Le Sueur 42 

Denonville, Governor, attacks 

Seuecas 15 

Orders Duluth to build a Fort 16 

Sends for western allies 30 

Commissions Du Luth 32 



INDEX. 



PACK 

Denton. Rev. IX, missionary to 

Sioux Ill 

D'ttsprlt, Pierre, see Radisson. .. 

D'Evaque, in charge of Fort 

1,'Hullller 48 

Abandons the Fort 48 

Devotion, M., sutler at Fort 

Snelling 91 

D'lberville. Gov., criticises Hen- 
nepin 28 

Relative of Le Sueur 39 

Memorial on tribes of the 

.Mississippi 45, 40 

Dioskau. Baron 61 

Dickson, Col. Hubert, visits Lt. 

Pike 77 

Trading post at Grand Rapids 78 

At Mendota 7S 

During war of 1818 so, si 

At Lake Traverse 89 

At Fort Snelling 93, 96 

William, son of Robert.... 96 
l)ii Cbesneau, intendant of Can- 
ada, complains of Dululb 11 

Du Lutb, Daniel Grevsolon, early 

life of 9 

Various spellings of his name 9 
Plants Kings Arms at Mille 

Lacs 9 

Establishes a Fort at Kaman- 

lstigova 9 

Decend'stheSt.Croi- river 11, 112 
Sends beaver skins to New 

England 11 

Attends a conference at Que- 
bec 11 

Visits Fiance 11 

Returns to Mackinaw 11 

Arrests and executes Indians 

at Sanlt St. Marie 11 

Censured by Louis XIV 14 

Brings allies to Niagara, for 

De la Bane 15 

Establishes a Fort on Lake 

Erie 15 

In battle with the Senecas. .. 15 
Returns to Lake Erie with 

his cousin Tontv 16 

Brother of, from Lake Nepi- 

gon : 16 

Disapproves of selling bran- 
dy to Indians 16 

In command at Fort Fron- 

tenac 16 

Afflicted with the gout 17 

Death of 17 

At Falls of St. Anthony... is, 26 

Meets Hennepin 25 

Tribute to 27 

His tour from Lake Superior 

to Mississippi 112 

Meets Accault and Hennepin 112 
Protects Frenchmen from 

Illinois 112 

Du Pay, a voyageur 10 

Durantaye, commander at Mac- 
kinaw 33 

At Ticonderoga 62 

At Niagara 15 

Ely, E. F., missionary teacher. ... 110 
Emerson, surgeon at Fort Snell- 
ing, complains of groggeries... 103 
Enjalran. Jesuit missionary at 

Sault St. Marie 11, 13 

Wounded in fight with Sene- 
cas 15 

English at Hudson Bav 16 

Etienne, Claude, widow of 1 

Faffart. interpreter for DuLuth. 10 

Visits the Sioux 11 

Descends the St. Croix River. 11 

At Falls of Saint Anthony. . . 18 

Meets Hennepin 25 

Falls of Saint Anthony, First 

white man at 25 

First mill at 93, 94 

Described by La Salle 19 

Described by Hennepin. 24,25, 26 

Described by Lt.Z.M.Pike,75, 76 

Described by Major Long ... 85 

Women drawn over 99 

First newspaper at 123 

Bridge, First across Missis- 
sippi 129 



PAGE 

Fireworks at Fort Beauharnois. 52 

Fisher, trader at Given Bay 63 

Fitch, pioneer in St. Croix Vallev, 112 
Flat Mouth. OJibway Chief, visits 

Fort Snelling .\. 1>. 1827 97 

His party attacked by Sioux. 98 

Gratifies his vengeance 99 

Referred to bv Nicollet 102 

Forsvtli, Major Thomas, accom- 
panies first troops to Fort 

Snelling 91 

I'avs Indians lor reservation. 91 
Fort Boauharnois established. A. 

D. 1727, at Lake Pepin 51 52 

Fireworks displayed at 53 

High water at 53, 55 

Commanded bv St. Pierre, 56, 57 

Fort Crawford 100 

La Reine, on river Assine- 

boine 33, 87 

Le Sueur, below Hastings. . 37 

L'Huillier.on BlueEarth river 43 

Built by Le Sueur 43 

Left in charge of D'Evaque 47 

Maurepas 58 

McRay 81 

Perrot, at Lake Pepin 29 

Rouge, of Red River 87 

Shelby ,at Prairie duChien.80, 81 
Fort Snelling, site securd by Lt. 

Pike 75 



Order to establish the post. .. 90 

Troops for.at Prairie du Chien 90 
Birth of Charlotte Ouisconsin 

Clark 90 

Events of A. D 1819 91 

Major Forsyth pays Sioux for 

reservation 91 

Col. Leavenworth arrives at 

Mendota 91 

First officers at cantonment.. 91 

Red River men arrive at 91 

Eventsof A. D. 1820... 91 

Major Taliaferro, Indian 

agent at 91 

Troops at Camp Cold Water . 91 
Cass and Schoolcraft visits.. 92 
Col. Snelling succeeds Leav- 
enworth 92 

Officers at, October, 1820 92 

Impressive scene at 93 

Events of A. D. 1821 93 

Advance in building 93 

Events of A. D. 1822, A. D.1823 9 1 

First steamboat at 93 

Beltrami, the Italian, at. . .93, 94 

Major S. H. Long arrives at.. 94 

Government mill near 94 

Sunday School at 94 

Eventsof A. D. 1824 95 

General Scott, suggests name 

for fort 95 

Events of A. D. 1825, and 1826, 96 

Mail, arrival at 96 

Sioux woman kills herself 96 

Great snow storm, March.1826 96 

High water at, April 21, 1826. 97 

Slaves belonging to officers,at 97 
Steamboat arrivals to close of 



07 



Duels at 

General Gaines censures Col- 
onel of 97 

Events of A. D. 1827 98 

Flat Mouth, Ojibway chief, 

visits in 1827 .«. 98 

Attacked by Sioux 98 

Soldiers arrest Sioux 99 

Colonel Snelling delivers u.ur- 

derers for execution 99 

Construction of, criticised by 

General Gaines 100 

Rev. Alva Coe in 1829 preach- 
es at 106 

Health of troops at 101 

Desertion at 101 

J. N. Nicollet arrives at 102 

Marriages at 102, 108, 120 

SioUx and O.iibways fight near 103 
Annoyed bv whisk v sellers.. 103 
Presbyterian church at 108 



PAGE 

Steamer Palinvra at, in July. 
IS38, with notice of ratifica- 
tion of Indian Ireaties 112 

Indian council held at by 

Governor Kamscv 121 

Fort St. Anthonv. now Snelling.. !>:> 
St. Charles. 'on Lake of the 

Woods 58 

St. Joseph on Lake Erie, es- 
tablished bv Du Luth 16 

St. l'ierre, on'ltainy Lake . 5x 
Foxes attempt to Pillage Fort 

Perrot 30 

Interview with Perrot 31 

Mentioned. 33, 37, 38, 48, 46, 54, 55 
Attack French at Blue Earth 

River 48 

Surrender to Louvigny 60 

Visited by Guignas 52 

Franklin, Sir' John, relics of, pass 

I hrough St. Paul 126 

Frontenac, Governor of Canada. 10 

Friend of Duluth 11 

Letter to by Cadillac 16 

Expedition against the Onei- 

das 16 

Encourages Le Sueur 39 

Forbids trading with the 

Sioux 49 

Frazer, trader 78 

Enters the British service ... 80 
Fuller, Jerome, Territorial Chief 

Justice 123 

Furber, J. W 127 

Galissoniere, Governor of Cana- 
da, notice of 59 

Gallier. Rev. L, builds first 

chapel in St. Paul 114 

Gavin, Rev. Daniel, missionary.. Ill 
Gibson, General, letters relative 

to St. Anthony mill 94 

Gillam, Capt.Zachary of Boston 
accompanied by Groselliers 
and Radisson sails for Hudson's 

Bay in ship Nonesuch 5 

Goodhue, James M., first Minne- 
sota editor — 117 

Death of 124 

Goodrich, Aaron, Territorial 

Judge us 

Removal of 123 

Gorman, Willis A. Governor.... 125 

Gorrell, Lieut, at Green Bay 02 

Graham, Duncan, in British ser- 
vice 81 

Arrives. at Fort Snelling 100 

Jane, daughter of Duncan 

married 102 

Grant, trader at Sandy Lake vis- 
ited by Pike 77 

Gravier, Father James, criticises 

Hennepin 28 

Greelev. Elam 109 

Griffin, La Salle's ship 10 

Vovage to Green Bay 19 

Crew pillage and desert to 

tie Sioux 10 

Grignon, Captain in British ser- 
vice 78, 81 

Groselliers, Sieur. early life,.. .1, 6 

Marriage l 

Son of 2, 6 

Second marriage 2 

Visits Mille Lacs region 2 

Is told of the Mississippi... . 2 

Meets the Assineboines 2 

Returns to Montreal in 1660. . 2 
Second visit to Lake Superior 2 

Visits Hudsons Bay 4 

Name given to what is now 

Pigeon River 5 

Visits New England 6 

Paris 5 

London 5 

Encouraged by Prince Rupert 5 
Sails for Hudson's Bay with 

a Boston sea captain 5 

Referred to bv Talon 6 

Death of 6 

Guignas, Father, missionary at 

Fort Beauharnois 51 

Describes journey to Lake 

Pepin 52 

Fort Beauharnois 53 



INDEX. 



Guignas, Father, page 

Captured bv Indians 54 

Nearly burned alive 55 

Returns to Lake Pepin 56 

Gun, grandson of Carver 82 

Hainanlt. Elizabeth 2 

Madeline 2 

Hall, Rev. Sherman Ojibway 

missionary 107 

Moves to Sauk Rapids in 

Hayner, H. Z., Chief Justice of 

Territory 124 

Hempstead accompanies Major 

Long, A. D. 1817 82 

Hennppin Louis. Franciscan mis- 
sionary, earlv life of 19 

Date of his first book is, 19 

Criticism of first book 19 

Depreciates! Jesuits 18 

.Meets a Sioux war party 19 

At the marsh below Saint 

Paul 19,20 22 

At Falls or St. Anthonv 

16.22,24, 25 

Denounced by I. a Salle 19 

Chaplain of La Salle 20 

His false map 20 

At Lake Pepin 22 

Makes a dictionary 23 

Baptizes an infant 23 

Met by Du Lutli 25 

Career on return to Europe.. 25 
His first and second book 

compared 20 

Replies to objectors 27 

Criticised by D'lberville 2s 

Criticised by Father Gravier 28 

His later davs 28 

Opinion of Jesuit Missions... 106 

Ilenniss C. J. editor 122 

Herschell, Sir John, translates 

Schiller's song of Si mx Chief. . 68 
Historical Society, first public 

meeting 110 

Hobart.Rev.C 119 

Holcomb. Capt. William no 

Hole-in-the-Dav, the father, at- 
tack" the Sioux 103 

Visits Fort Snellingin 1828 103 

Attacked by Sioux no 

Visits Fort Siic-l'iiijsr in ls':>.. . no 

Pursued bv the Sioux 103 

Hole-in-the-Dav. Junior, attacks 

Sioux near St Paul 121 

On first steamboat above 

Falls of St. Anlhonv 121 

Howe, earlv settler at Marine... 113 
Hudson's Bay visited by Grosell- 

iers 4, 5 

By Kadisson 5 

By Capt. Zachary Gillam 5 

Huggins, Alexander, mission far- 
mer 107 

Hurons driven to Minnesota 2 

Dwell with Iowavs 2 

Live on Isle of the Mississippi 2 
Remove to sources of Black 

River 2 

Unite with Oitawas at La 

Pointe 4 

At War with the Sioux 4 

Disastrous defeat 4 

Retreat to Mackinaw 4 

Indiana Territory, organized 73 

Indians of Mississippi Vallev, 

earliest communication about. 40 
Upper Missouri, seen by Yer- 

endrye 60 

Minnesota 104 

Iowavs. visited by Hurons 2 

Visit Perrot at Lake Pepin. . 29 

Mentioned 39, 42. 4.;. 44, 45 

Iroquois, Virgin, her interces- 
sion sought bv Dn I.iith 17 

Isle. Pelee, of the Mississippi be- 
low St. Croix River 37 

Isle Royal, copper in 1667, noticed 7 

Itasca, oriein of word 107 

Jackson. Henry, early settler in 

St. Paul 114. 115 

Jemeraje, Sieur-de la, wiih the 

Sioux 56 

Nephew of Verendrye 58 

Explores to Rainy Lake... 58, 59 

Prepares a map 58 



PAGE 

Death of 59 

Jesuit, Father Allouez 4 

Chardon 52 

De Conor 51 

De la Chasse 51 

Guignas 51,f4,55, 56 

Guymnneau 51 

Marquette 5 

Menard 2, 3 

Messayer 58 

Jesuit missions unsuccessful ... HC 
Jesuit missionaries promised the 

Sioux 51 

Johnson. Parsons K 119 

Jonouiere, Governor of Canada. 60 

Fort established 60 

Jnchereau at the mouth of the 

Wisconsin 48 

Conciliates the Foxes 49 

Judd, earlv seltler at Marine . . 113 
Kalm, Professor, notices Veren- 

drve 59 

Eaposia Chief requests a mis- 
sionary 114 

Keel boats from Fort Snelling 

attacked 99, ho 

Kennerman. Pike's sergeant 76 

Kertk. see Kirk 

Kickapoos, at Fort Perrot so 

Mention of 40,46,64, 55 

Capture French from Lake 

Pepin 54 

King, grandson of Carver 82 

Kirk. Sir David Kirk, brother-in- 
law of Radisson 1 

Lac Vieux Dpsert 3 

La Hontan. his early life 35 

Book of travels 35 

Arrives at Fort St. Joseph, on 

Lake Erie 35 

Ascent of the Fox River a5 

Descends the Wisconsin River 33 
Alleged voyage of the Long 

River 36 

Pronounced a fabrication, in 

1716. bvBobe 36 

Criticised b Charlevoix 36 

Noticed by Nicollet 36 

I.aidlow travels from Selkirk set- 
tlement to Prairie duCbien.... 91 
Brings wheat by boat to Pem- 
bina 91 

At Fort Snelling 33 

Lac qui Parle mission 109 

Lake Calhoun. Indian farm es- 
tablished 106 

Lake Harriet, mission described 109 
Lake Pepin, called Lake of Tears 

Described In A. D. i7oo 41 

Fort Perrot at 29 

Fort Beauharnois at 53 

Lake of the Oitawas 3 

Lake Pokeguma Mission 109 

liable at 109 

La Monde, a vovageur 10 

Landsing, trader, killed 63 

Lambert. David, earlv settler in 

st. Paul lis 

Lambert. Henry A., early settler 

in SI. Paul 119 

Langlade, of Green Bay, urges 

attack of Brad dock 61 

Near Lake George 62 

La Perriere. Sieurde, proceeds to 

Sioux country..' 31 

Son of Pierre Boucher 51 

Arrives at Lake Pepin 52 

Builds Fori Beauharnois.. .. 52 
His brother. Montbrun. cap- 
tured by Indians 53 

La Place. a French deserter killed 

bv the Sioux 42 

La Porte, see Louvigny. 

La Poiherie describes Fort Per- 
rot, at Lake Pepin 29 

Larpenteur, A., early settler at 

St. Paul no 

La Salle licensed to trade in buf- 
falo robes 10 



His crew desert 10 

Criticises Du Luth 10, 18 

His Pilot attempts to join Du- 

Luth 10 



PAGE 

First to describe Upper Mis- 
sissippi 18 

Describes Falls of Saint An- 
thony 19 

Poor opinion of Hennepin. .. 19 
La Taupine. see Moreau. 
Laurence. Phineas, pioneer in St. 

Croix Vallev 113 

Leach, Calvin, a founder of Still- 
water 113 

Lead mines on Mississippi 33 

Described by Penieaut 34 

Leavenworth. Colonel, establish- 
es FortSnelling no 

Arrival at Mendota ill 

Changes his cantonment.... 91 

Relieved by Snelling 92 

Le Due. Philip, robbed near nor- 
thern boundary of Minnesota.. 61 
Legardeur, Augustine, associate 

of Perrot 32 

See St. Pierre. 
Legislature, First Territorial, 

meets Jan., 1849. officers of 119 

Second Territorial, meets 

Jan.. 1850. officers of 122 

Third Territorial, meets Jan., 

1852. Officers of 124 

Foiuth Territorial, meets Jan. 

1853. officers of 124 

Fifth Territorial, meets Jan., 

1854 officers of 126 

Sixth Territorial, meets Jan., 

1855. officers of 120 

Seven' h Territorial, meets 

Jan., 1856, officers of 127 

Eighth Territorial, meets 

Jan.. 1857. officers of 127 

Special Territorial, 1857 127 

First State 128 

Leslie. Lt., command at Macki- 
naw .. G2 

L'Hnillier, Fort, why named .... 43 
Le Maire, Jacques, killed by In- 
dians 11 

Le Sueur, associated with Perrot 32 

builds a Fort below Hastings 32 

A relative of D'lberville ..37, 39 
At Lake Pepin in 1683 and 

1689 37, 40 

At La Pointe of Lake Super- 
ior. 1692... 37 

Builds a Post below Hastings 37 
Brings first Sioux chief to 

Montreal 37, 83 

Visits Fiance 38 

Encouraged bv Frontenac. .. 39 

Arrives in Gulf of Mexico... :-9 

Ascends the Mississippi 30 

Passes Perrnt's lead mines... 40 

Meets destitute Canadians... 40 

At the River St. Croix 42 

Builds Fort L'Hnillier 43 

Holds a council with the 

Sioux 44 

Returns to Gulf of Mexico 45, 74 
Sails wiih D'lberville to 

France 45, 74 

Libber, Washington, pioneer at 

St. Croix Falls 113 

Lignerv. commands at Mackinaw 50 

At Fort Duquesue 61 

Linctot, commander at Macki- 
naw 51 

Pursues the Foxes 53 

Little Crow, Sioux chief goes in 

1824 to Washington 95 

Long. Major Stephen H, tour to 

Falls of St. Anthony. A. D 1817 82 

At Wapasbaw village 82 

Describes Sioux bear dance. . 83 

Burial place 83 

Kaposia village '6 

Carver's cave 84 

Fountain cave 84 

St. Anthony Falls 85 

Opinion of the site of Fort 

Snelling 86 

Arrives at Fort Snelling, A. 

D. 1823 94 

Loom is, Capt. Gustavus A., TJ. 

S. A 108 

Eliza marries Lieut. Ogden.. 103 



INDEX. 



I'M; io 
Loomis. D. B. .early settler of 
st Croix Valley 122 

l.oras. Bishop Of Dubuque 109 

Louisiana, transfer of 73 

Louvlgny, Sieur de, escorted to 

Mackinaw by Perrot 33. r.o 

His reoeptlon as commander S3 

Recalled BO 

Expedition against, tlie Foxes SO 
l.owrv. Svlvanus, earlv settlor.. 127 

Ifacalester College 125 

Mackinaw re-occupied 50 

Surrendered by Americans., so 

rrcslivlerian mission at 106 

Rev. Dr. Morse visits 10G 

Robert Stuart resides at... . IOC 
Rev. W. M. Ferry, missionary 

at 106 

Mahas mentioned 44,45,46, 55 

Mandans mentioned 46 

Maginnis mates a claim at St. 

Croix Falls 112 

Mapbv Franquelln indicates Du 

Lutb's explorations 9 

The Indian Oehagach 87 

De la.Iemeraye ,..' 87 

Verendrye 87 

Marest, James Joseph, Jesuit 
missionary, signs the papers 
taking possession of the Upper 

Mississippi 32 

Letter to Le Sueur 3.0 

Commends Louvigny fio 

Opinion of the Sioux 51 

Marin, Lamarque de, French 

officer 60 

In command at Green Bay. . . CI 
Lt. Marin attacks English. . . 62 

Marine, early settlers at 1!2 

Marriages at Fort Snelling 

102, 108, 110 
Marshall, Hon. W. R., mentioned, 

115, 126 
Marquette, Jesuit missionary at 

LaFointe 4 

Martin. Abraham, pilot 1 

Maskoutens mentioned 37 

At Fort Perrot 30 

Massacre Island, Lake of the 

Woods, origin of the name 59 

McOillis. Hugh, N. W. Co. Agent, 

Leech Lake 78 

McGregor, English trader, ar- 
rested 15 

McKay, trader from Albany 63 

Lt.' Col. William, attacks 

Prairie du Chien 81 

McKean, Elias, a founder of Still- 
water 113 

McKenzie, old trader 87 

McKusick, J. a founder of Still- 
water 113 

McLean, Nathaniel, editor 119 

McLeod,Martin,exposed to snow 

storm 102 

Speaker of council in 1853 — 124 
Menard Rene, Jesuit missionary 

letter of 2 

Among the Ottawas of Lake 

Superior 3 

Attempted visit to Hurons, in 

"Wisconsin 3 

Lost in the marshes or killed 3 
Said to have been on the Mis- 
sissippi before Joliet and 

Marquette 3 

Medary, Governor, Samuel 127 

Meeker, B. B., Territorial Judge, 

118, 119 
Messaver, Father, accompanies 

the Verendrye expedition 58 

Miami Indians visited by Perrot. 30 
Ask for a trading post on Mis- 
sissippi 33 

Mention of 38,46, 44 

Mill, first in Minnesota 93, 98 

Mille Lacs Sioux visited by Du 

Luth 9 

Hennepin 22 

Minnesota, meaning of the word 116 

River, first steamboat in 122 

Historical Society, 119 

Territory, proposed bounda- 
ries 115 



PAGE 

Remonstrance against 115 

Vat ions names proposed 116 

Convention at Stillwater 115 

When organized 117 

First election 118 

First Legislature 118 

First counties organized 119 

Seal of 120 

Recognized as a State 128 

Mitchell, Alexander M., U. S. 

Marshal 118 

Candidate for Congress 125 

Missions. Jesuit 5, 16. lot! 

Mission Stations, Mackinaw 106 

La Pointe 107 

Leech Lake 107 

Yellow Lake 107 

Lake Harriet 108 

Lac-qui parle 109, 111 

Pokeguma 109 

Kaposia Ill 

Traverse de Sioux 111 

Shakpay 111 

Oak Grove Ill 

Red Wing ill 

Missionaries, Rev. Alvan Coe, 

visits Fort Snelling 107 

Frederick Ayer 107 

W. T. Boutwell 107 

E. F. Elv, (teacher) 109 

Mr. Denton Ill 

Sherman Hall 107 

Daniel Gavin Ill 

John F. Aiton 111 

Robert Hopkins 111 

Gideon 11. Pon ' 107 

Samite W. Pond 107 

J.W.Hancock 111 

J. I). Stevens 107 

S. R. Riggs 111 

T. S. Williamson M. D 107 

M. N. Adams ill 

Montbrun, in returning from 

Lake Pepin, captured 53 

Montcalm. Marquis, dispatch to 

Vaudreuil 62 

Montgomery, General, death of. 1 
Moreau. Pierre, with Du Luth at 

Lake Superior 9 

Arrested 10 

Morrison, William, old trader 7. J . 87 
Moss. Henry L., V. S. District 

Attorney 118 

Nadowaysioux. see Sioux 

Negro woman found dead near 

Kaposia 113 

Nepigon, Lake. Verendrye at.... 87 
Neill, Rev. Edward D., offers 
praver at opening of first legis- 
lature 119 

Delivers opening address of 

Historical Society 119 

Newspaper first in St. Paul, the 

Pioneer 117, 118 

Minnesota Register 118 

Minnesota Chronicle 118 

Chronicle and Register 118 

Carriers Address 119 

Dahkotah Friend 122 

Minnesota Democrat 122 

St. Anthonv Express 123 

Nicolet. Jean, first white trader 

in Wisconsin 1 

Nicollet, J. N., astronomer and 

geologist 102 

Letterfrom St.Anthonv Falls 102 
Niverville, Boucher de, at Lake 

Winnipeg 60 

Norris, J. S 12c 

North, J. W 122, 128 

Northwes company trading 

posts " 73 

Description of buildings 73 

Territory divided 73 

None, Robertal de la. re-occu- 
pies Du Luth's Post at the head 

of Lake Superior 50 

Ochagachs, draws a nap for Ve- 
rendrye 58 

Mentioned by the geographer 

Bellin 

Ojihwavs or Cliippeways. ..30, 31, 37 

Captive girls 31, 32 | 



PACK 

Chief of, with Le Sueur at 

Montreal 37 

In council with Sioux 94 

Killed near Fort Snelling, A. 

D.. 1826 97 

Visit Fort, A. D., 1827 

Treachery of 10.1 

Conflict, with Sioux near Fort 

Snelling Kfl 

Early residence of 105 

Sioux name, for 105 

Principal villages of 105 

Of Lake Pokeguma attacked 110 

Attack at Kaposia Sioux Ill 

Treaty of 1837 112 

Attack Sioux near St. Paul... 121 
Passengers on first steam- 
boat above Falls of Saint 

Anthony 121 

Attack Sioux in St. Paul streets 125 
Kill a Sioux gin in a farm 

house 127 

Oliver, Lieut. U. S. A., detained 

by ice at Hastings 91 

Olmstead.S. B 126 

Olmsted, David, President of 

first council 119 

Candidate for Congress 122 

Editor of Democrat 125 

One Eyed Sioux, alias Bourgne 
Orignal Leve, Rising Moose. 8, r > 
Loyal to America during war 

or 1812 81 

Arrested by Dickson 81 

Ottawas. their migrations 2 

At Mackinaw 32 

Ottoes, mentioned 42,43, 44 

Ouasicoude. (Wah-zee-ko-ta\) 
Sioux chief mentioned by Hen- 
nepin 23, 27 

By Long 82 

Owens, John P., editor 123 

Pacific Ocean, route, to 

36,50,58,60, 69 

Parrant nicknamed Pig's Eye 113 

Parsons, Rev. J. P 119 

Patron, uncle of Du Luth... 11 

Penicaut describes Fort Perrot.. 29 

Fort Le Sueur on Isle Pelee.. 37 

Mississippi River 42 

Residence at Blue Earth Riv- 
er 47 

Describes Fort L'Huillier 47 

Pennensha, French trader among 

the Sionx 53 

Pere. see Perrot. 

Perkins. Lt., U. S. A., in change 

of Fort Shelby 80 

Perriere. see La Perriere. 
Perrot, Nicholas, arrests Achiga- 

naga at Lake Superior 12 

Visits Keweenaw 14 

Early days of 20 

Interpreter. A. D. 1671, at 

Sault St. Marie 29 

Account of Father Menard's 
ascent of Hie Mississippi 

and Black River 2 

Suspected of poisoning La 

Salle 29 

Associated with Du Luth — 29 

First visit to Lake Pepin. ... 29 

Visited bv Ioways 29 

Trades with the Sioux 29 

Brings allies to Niagara 30 

■ Strategy at Lake Pepin 30 

Presents a silver ostensorinm 30 
Terrifies the Sioux by burning 

a cup of brandy and water. 30 

In the Seneca expedition ai 

His return to Lake Pepin 31 

Journeys to the Sioux 31 

Takes possession of the-couu- 

try 32 

Rescues Ojibway girls 32 

Boldness at Mackinaw 32 

Conducts a convov from Mon- 
treal 34, 38 

Establishes a post on Kala- 
mazoo river 34 

Recalled 34 

Threatened with death by 

Indians 38 

Interpreter at Montreal 38 



INDEX 



TAG E 

Name of wife 34 

Time of death 34 

Peters. Rev.Saniuel, interested in 

the Carver claim 70, 61, 96 

Petims, see Hindis. 

Phillips, W. D., early lawyer at 

St. Paul 11C. 119 

Picard, see Augelle. 

Pig's Eye, marsh below St. Pan', 113 

Origin of name 114 

Pike, Lt. Z. M., U. S. army at 

Praii is dn Chien T4 

Council with Sioux at mouth 

of Minnesota 74 

Address to Indians 74 

Treaty for sites for military 

posts 75 

DescriplionofFallsof St. An- 

thnnv 75, 76 

l.o t flag brought back 76 

Mock house at Swan River... 77 

Visited by Dickson 77 

At Cass or Red Cedar Lake . . 77 

At Sandv Lake 77 

At Leecli Lake 78 

Orders the British flag to be 

hauled down 78 

At Dicksons trading post 78 

Confers with Sioux at Minne- 
sota river 78 

Passes Kaposi a village 78 

Confers with Little Crow 78 

Pinchon, sec Pcnensha. 
Pinchon. Fils de, Sioux chief, 

confers w ifeh Pike 78 

Pond, Rev. G. H.. assists in bury- 
ing slaughtered Sioux 10.'! 

i ditor of Dahkotah Friend . 122 

Interpreter at treaty of 1851. 124 

Pond, Rev. s miuei \\\. notifies 

the agent of a Si.uix war party 103 

Erects the first house of >aw- 

ed lumber in the Minnesota 

Valley 107 

Prepares a Sioux spelling 

book ins 

Grammar 111 

Porlier, trader near Sauk Rapids 

76, 78 

Poupon, Isadore, killed by Sisse- 

ton Sioux 92 

Prairie du Chien described by 

ivi-r 64 

During war of Isi2-lsi5 so 

Fort Shelby at 80 

McKay at si 

British officers at 81 

Prescott, Philander, early life 91 
Provencalle. loyal to America in 

war of 1812 81 

Quiiin. Peter 103 

Raclos, Madeline, wife of Nicho- 
las Perrot 34 

Radisson, Marguerite 2 

Kadisson, Sieur, early life and 

marriage 2 

Second marriage 2 

Brother-in-law of Groselliers 2 

Visits the sioux 2 

Sails with ('apt. Gill am to 

Hudson's Hay 5 

Rae, Dr., Arctic explorer at St. 

Paul 124 

Ramsey, Hon. Alexander. Bret 

Governor 117 

Guest of if H. Sibley at Men- 

dola " 118 

Becomes a resident of st. 

Paul U-S 

Holds Indian council at Port 

Snelling 121 

First message. .'. 

Randin, visits eUreinity of Lake 

Superior nil 

Ravoux, Rev. A., Sioux mission- 
ary 109 

Reauine, Sieur, interpreter 52 

Red River of the North, men- 
tioned 87 

Why called 87 

Fort Rouge on 87 

Scotch settlers at 87 

Rival trading companies 87 

Swiss immigrants to 89 



PAGE 

Renville, Joseph, mention of 76. 109 

Renville. John 109 

Republican convention at St. 

Anthony 126 

Rice. Hon. Henry M.. st<-ps to or- 
ganize Minnesota Territory 115, 110 

.Moves to St. Paul 118 

Fleeted to Congress 125, 126 

(". S Senator 12s 

Richards, F. S., trader at Lake 

Pepin 117 

Rigss, Rev. S. R., Sioux mission- 
ary, letierof Ill 

Interpreter at treaty of 1851 . . 123 
R>bbinette, pioneer in St. Croix 

Valley 112 

Robertson, Daniel A., editor 124. 125 
Rocky Mountains discovered by 

Verendrye CO 

Rocque or Roque, A., at Wapa- 

shaw 117 

Rogers, Captain, at Ticonderaga. 62 
In charge at Mackinaw. . .62. 66 
Skirmish with Durantave... 62 
Alluded to bv Sir W. Johnson 69 
Rolette, Joseph Sr., in the Brit- 
ish service 81 



51 



Rolette, Joseph Jr. 

Roseboom. English trader, ar- 
rested near Mackinaw 

Roseboom. trader at Gieen Bav. 

Rosser, J. T., Secretary of Terri- 
tory 

Rouville. Hertel de, French olli- 



Russell, Jeremiah, pioneer in st. 

Croix Valley 10:', 112 

Marriage of 113 

Sagard. in 1636 notices Lake Su- 
perior copper 7 

Saint Anthony Express, first pa- 
per beyond St. Paul 123 

Saint Anthony Falls, Suspension 

bridge over 126 

Described by early explorers 
in. 21.25. 75, Til, S5 

Government mill al t>3, 94 

Saint Croix county organized — 111 

Court in ill 

Saint Croix River, origin of 

name 42 112 

Du Luth first explorer of 112 

Fort on, spoken of bv Hellin. 112 
Pitt and party cut lumber ... 112 

Pioneers in valley of 112 

Early preachers in valley of. 113 

First woman 113 

Saint Paul, origin of name lit 

Early settlers of 114 

First School house in 114 

Appearance in 1849 117 

High water in 1850 121 

Newspapers 117. 118,119, 122 

First execution for murder.. 124 

Indian light in streets of 125 

ltelics ariive from Franklin's 

expedition 126 

Effort to remove seat of Gov- 
ernment therefrom 127 

Saint Pierre, Captain, at Lake 

Superior 60 

At Lake Pepin 53, 65 

Commander at Mackinaw. ... 61 

Noticed bv Carver 57 

At Fort La Keine 60 

Arrests murderers 61 

In N. \V. Pennsylvania ...60, 61 
Visited by Washington 60 

Killed in battle 60 

Tribute to 61 

Saskatchewan, first visited by 
French 



Fort at 

Schiller, versifies a Sioux chiefs 

speech 

Scott, Died, slave at Fort Snell- 

ing 

Scott, General Wiulield. suggests 

the name of Fort Snelling 

Selkirk, Earl. Thomas Douglas.. 

Secures Ossiniboia 

Forms an agricultural colony 
Arrives in New York city 



60 



Reaches Saul t St. Marie. 



Discovers Johu Tanrer 88 

Concludes a treaty with In- 
dians '. Rfl 

Passes through Minnesota. . . s:i 
Semple. Governor of Selkirk set- 
tlement, killed ss 

Murderer of ss 

Senecas defeated by the French 15 
Shea, J. G., on failure to estab- 
lish Sioux mission lii'i 

Sherburne, Moses. Judge 1.5 

Shields. Gen. James, elected F. 

S. Senator 12s 

Shingowahbav. Ojibwav chief 

with Le Sueur at .Montreal 37 

Sihlev, Hon. H. H„ at Stillwater 

convention 115 

Delegate to Congress from 

Wisconsin Territory 116 

Impression made at Wash- 
ington 11( 

Elected delegate to Congress 122 
Silver ostensoiiuni, presented by 

Perrot. still preseived '. 30 

Sioux, origin of the word 1 

Defeat the Hurons 4 

Described by Father Allouez 4 

Attack Indians at La Poiute 4 

Peculiar language of 4 

Described in A. D. 1671 4 

Attacked at Sanlt St. Marie.. 5 

Villages visited by Du Filth.. 9 

Described bv Cadillac 16 

Meet Accault and Henne- 
pin 1!), 20 

Words mentioned bv Henne- 
pin 21,22, 27 

Of MilleLacs ■>> 

Offering at Falls of St. An- 
thony 20 

Visited by Giosellier and 

Radisson 

Nicholas Perrot 2:) 

Described by Perrot :;i 

Mantantans ::•_' 

Meaning of the word 1 1 

Different bands of 10 1 

Med-day-wah- kawn-twawn 

villages 104, 1 5 

Warpavkutav division of 1ir> 

Warpaytwawns 100 

Seeseetwawns nn 

Dictionary commenced Ill 

Frightened bv burning bran- 
dy .",!) 

Mantantaws 32, II 

Sissetons 32 

Medavwalikaunt\vauns....32, 43 

Onjalespnitons 43, 44 

Assinebuines, cause of sepa- 
ration 43 

War party arrested bv Perrot 33 

Tbe first to visit Montreal . . . . 37 

chiefs speech to Frontenac. 38 

Chief's death at Montreal.... 38 
War party against the Illi 

nois 39, 40 

Eastern and Western des- 
cribed 48 

Chief visits Fort L'Huillier .. 43 

In council with Le Sueur 44 

Bands of. A. D. 1700 45 

Attack Miamis 45 

Visited bv Jesuits 51 

A foil to the Foxes 55 

Attack convoy of Verendi ye, 

Deputation visit Quebec ..'... 57 
Deputation visit English at 

Green Bay 63 

Hands described by Carver. . 1,5 
Chiefs speech described by 

Carver 67 

Chiefs speech versified by 

Schiller 07 

Language. Carver's views on, i;:i 
Chief, Ungual Leve, Pike's 

friend 75, 81 

Formerly dwelt at Leech 

Lake 78 

Bear Dance described by 

Long '. 83 

Sisseton murderer brought to 

Fort Snelling 92 

Iu council with Ojihways 94 



INDEX. 



Sioux Delegation in A. D. 1824, 

nolo Washington .'... 95 

Kill Ojibways, a. d., 1826, 

near Fort Snelling 98 

Kill in 1827 98 

Delivered bv Col. Snelling . . 99 

Executed bv Ojibways 99 

Killed bv Ojibways, April 

1838 103 

War with Ojlbwavs in l s.«9 . 103 
Attack Lake Pokeguma band 

in 1811 no 

Arc attacked in 1842 ill 

War parts of si. ux at Apple 

River, 1850 121 

Kill a teamster 123 

Treaties of 1851 123 

Attacked in St. Paul by Ojib- 
ways 125 

Simpson, early settler in St. Paul 114 
Slaves, African, in Minnesota.... 97 
Smith. C. K., first Secretary of 

Territory "lis, 119 

Snelliug, Col. Josiab, arrives at 

Fort Snelling 92 

Censured by General Gaines. 97 
Delivers Sioux assassins to 

Ojibways 99 

Hastens with Keel boats to 

Fort Crawford 100 

Death of 101 

Tribute to 101 

W. Joseph, son of Colonel 

career of 97 

Author and poet 97 

Pasquinade on N. P. Willis.. 98 

Death of 98 

Steamboat arrivals at Fort Snell- 

ine to close of 1826 97 

Virginia first at Fort Snelling 93 
First to Falls of St. Anthony 121 

Above 121 

In Minnesota River 122 

Steele, Franklin, pi><neer in St. 

Croix "Valley 112, 113 

At Stillwater convention 1848 115 
Foreman of Grand Jury ... 119 

Stevens, Rev. J. D 106, 108 

Stillwater, battle between Sioux 

and Ojibwavs 103 

Founders of 113 

Notice of by Boutwell 114 

Convention'at in 1848 115 

Scalpdancein 121 

Land slide in 1852 124 

Stratton, pioneer in St. Croix 
Valley 112, 113 



PAUK 

Stoddard, Capt.U. S. A 

Stuart. Robeit, at. Mackinaw, in- 

lliienee of 106 

Swiss emigrants, at Red River. . . 89 
Swart/, Andrew, teamster, killed 

by Sioux 123 

Taliaferro. Maj. Lawrence, agent 

for the Sioux, notice of 91 

Letter to Ol. Leaven worth . . 92 
Takes Indians to "Washing- 
ton. A. D., 1824 95 

Talon, intendant of Canada, re- 
fers to (iroselliers 6 

Refers to Lake Superior cop- 
per 7 

Tanner, John, stolen from his 

parents 88 

Became an Indian chief . . 88 
Discovered by Earl of Sel- 

Suspeeted of Murder 88 

James, son of John 88 

Troublesome and deceitful .. 88 
Tannery for Buffalo skins ... .46, 48 
Tavlor, Jesse B.. pioneer in St. 

Croix Valley 112 

Joshua L ! 118 

N. C. D.. Speaker Hou-e of 

Representatives 1854 126 

Teeoskahtay, Sioux chief first in 

Montreal 37 

Speech to Governor Fron- 

tenac 38 

His death in Montreal 39, 44 

Tegahkouita, Catherine, the 

Iroquois virgin 17 

Terrv, Elijah, murdered by Sioux 

at Pembina 124 

Thompson, David, geographer. 

N. W. Co , . . . 78 

Tonty, Henry, with Du Luth at 

Niagara 15 

Cousin of Du Luth 16 

Traders forbidden to enter the 

Sioux country 48 

Treaties of 1837 with Sioux and 

Ojibways 112 

Turtle, O. A., at Falls of St. Croix 112 
University of Minnesota creaed 122 

Van Cteve, Gen. H. P 90 

Charlotte Ouisconsin, wife of 

Gen 90 

Paper by 95 

Varennes, Pierre Gualtier, see 

Verendrye 

Vercheres.in command at Green 
Bay ... 61 



PAGE 

Verendrye. Sieur, early life of. . . 58 

At. Lake Nepigon 5s 

Obtains an Indian Map 58 

Expedition west of Lake Su- 
perior 58 

A son killed bv Sioux 59 

A nephew dies 59 

Sons of. reach Rocky Moun- 
tains 59 

Return to Lake of the Woods 95 

Superseded 59 

Restored 59 

Death 59 

Chevalier, notice of 59 

sieur Jr., accompanies St. 

Pierre 59, 61 

Wahkautape, Sionx chief visits 

Le Sueur 43, 44 

Wahmatah, Sicux chief 95 

Wait. LB 119 

Wakefield, John A 116 

Wales. W. W 127 

Washington visits St. Pierre 60 

Welch, W. H., Chief Justice of 

Territory 125 

Wells. James, trader married... 102 

At Lake Pepin 117 

Killed by Sioux 102 

Wilkin Alexander, Secretary of 

Territory 124 

Candidate for Congress 125 

Williamson, Rev. T. S., M. D., 

early life 107 

Arrival among the. Sioux. 107 
Organizes church at Fort 

Snelling 108 

Missionary at Lac qui Parle. 

Kaposia 114 

Procures school teacher for 

St. Paul 114 

Willis. N. P., lampoons Joseph 

Snelling 97 

Winnebagoes, mentioned 40. 52 

Attack Keel boats ...99, 100 

First notice of 1o5 

Successive removals 105 

Wisconsin River, ca'led Mes- 

chetz Odeha bv La Salle 18 

Described by Le Sueur 40 

Guignas 52 

Wolfe, General, death of 1 

Wood, trader among Soux 78 

Yeiser, Capr, at Fort Shelby 80 

Yuhazee, executed at St. Paul... 124 



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